The outcome of the 2024 election was determined by the televised debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden this past week. As they say, “it’s all over but the shouting.”

Now begin weeks of denial by many Democrats that Biden’s re-election chances were destroyed by the debate. Perhaps they have some deep emotional need to defend the Democratic Party’s actions—no matter how ill-advised—but Biden’s performance cannot be erased from the minds of the 50 million Americans who tuned in to make a judgment on this very question. His performance clearly validated the claims of others that he is not up to the standards of the job he is seeking to retain.

Not only were Biden’s answers to the moderators’ questions weak and unsupported in themselves, but when he was not speaking—when Trump was answering the questions—Biden’s blank facial expressions suggested that he did not fully understand either what was happening or even why he was there. Trump, on the other hand, seemed interested in what Biden was saying, which showed viewers that his brain was actually engaged in the event.  

No one with an open mind who saw the debate can believe that Biden—already trailing in many of the battleground states—will be able to beat Trump in November. On the TV screens of 50 million potential voters, Biden came across as an old man without the mental capacity to function as President. Because Biden’s competence was an issue before the debate—many of the polls showed voters’ concerns about this issue—only made it worse when these concerns were validated before their eyes.

It is particularly odd that some well-known Democrats—many in the media—continue to argue that Biden should be the party’s candidate. They say that this performance was a fluke—like Reagan’s first debate with Mondale—and can be corrected in the second debate.  

What is particularly surprising about the reaction of many Democrats who still defend Biden is that they don’t seem to recognize what many voters do—that Biden’s problems, as bad as they seem now, will only worsen if he’s elected to a second term. Most Americans have experienced living with or caring about an aging parent. They know that memory problems do not cure themselves, but only get more serious as time goes on.

The idea that Biden’s performance was an unexplained lapse, or the result of a cold, is not persuasive when what American voters saw was an old man struggling with the realities of age. They know from experience with their own families that Biden’s memory problem was neither curable nor fleeting.

The Democrats who continue to argue that Biden is up to the job but only had a bad night must be made to recognize the danger they are creating.

Unless Biden himself comes to understand his deficiencies, and if important members of the Democratic Party cannot persuade him to drop out of the race, the Democrats will be nominating a candidate who will certainly lose to Donald Trump—a candidate whose own performance in the debate was ample evidence of his clear unfitness for the presidency.

Many of Trump’s statements were obviously untrue, yet he has gotten away with them throughout the campaign. To name only a few of these lies, there is no evidence that the immigrants coming across the southern border were coming from mental institutions, that the Capitol police ushered demonstrators into the Capitol on January 6, or that Nancy Pelosi refused to allow a Trump request for the National Guard to protect the Capitol. One media source found 30 falsehoods. In addition, he refused to promise to abide by the results of the election, opening the likelihood that he will again attempt to remain in office—or install a surrogate in office—after the 2028 election.

Trump remains the most dangerous threat to democracy in our history, and the Democrats who insist it is too late to stop Biden’s nomination will—if they succeed—be complicit in bringing Trump’s disastrous election to pass.  

It is not too late for the Democratic Party to act. If Biden can be persuaded, for the good of the country, to free his delegates, the Democratic convention is empowered to nominate a candidate other than Biden. Post-debate polls could be persuasive in this effort.

No one can know today who that candidate will be, but a failure of the Democrats to put forward a candidate who at least has the potential to defeat Donald Trump will be a grave disservice to the nation.

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