There was no question about President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance during the first 2024 presidential debate, Thursday night on CNN. Even NBC political director Chuck Todd could not hide his disgust and declared that the President looked like a conservative media “caricature.”

Todd referenced a conversation from even before the debate, sharing how there had been a discussion about which “candidate [would] look like the caricature that the other campaign has been trying to paint of them.” 

To him, the answer was obvious. “Joe Biden looks like the caricature that conservative media has been painting,” and, this time, there was no hiding behind the White House’s new pet excuse: “cheap fakes.” Todd told NBC co-host Tom Llamas that “You saw it before your eyes.”

 

 

He also mentioned a variety of exchanges he had with Democratic Party leaders, both elected and coalition. To Todd, it was clear that support for Biden was waning as a result of the debate:

There’s a full-on panic about this performance. Not like, oh, this is recoverable, it is more of a, okay, he’s gotta step aside, there’s a lot of that chatter. This is–this is about as bad of a performance in order to–that Biden could have delivered if his goal was to try to sort of calm the waters among Democrats.

Todd further drew attention to polls among Democrats that had already demonstrated their hesitation at a second Biden presidency. He suggested that those numbers would only increase:

I mean, look, there was a poll just out earlier this week that showed, you know, a lot of Democrats, it’s not just elected Democrats, rank-and-file Democrats are both supportive of Biden, but think he should not be seeking a second term. I have a feeling we're gonna see more polling on this and we’re gonna see that number even higher. But the panic level particularly among elected Democrats who have to share the ballot with him–there is a full-on panic tonight. 

He emphasized that the results of Thursday night’s debate spelled trouble for the Biden campaign, specifically with regards to donors and, again, Democratic leaders. In Todd’s opinion, it was only the tip of the iceberg:

Maybe they’ll get calmed down in the morning, but there is gonna be–there’s a lot of chatter among donors tonight, a lot of chatter among major elected leaders tonight. Again, if the Biden campaign–they have a lot of calming calls that they're gonna have to start making. Or they may–they may see this get momentum publicly and I don’t know if they can stop that.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

NBC News NOW

6/27/2024

11:05:28 PM EST

CHUCK TODD: Look, we began this conversation before this debate. You know, one of the things was would either candidate look like the caricature that the other campaign has been trying to paint of them. And at the end of the day, Joe Biden looks like the caricature that conservative media has been painting, and there were no clips tonight, right? This was–you saw it before your eyes. 

Look, I don't want to just tell you what I think here, Tom. I’ve been talking to a lot of leaders in the Democratic Party, elected’s, coalition leaders. There’s a full-on panic about this performance. Not like, oh, this is recoverable, it is more of a, okay, he’s gotta step aside, there’s a lot of that chatter. This is–this is about as bad of a performance in order to–that Biden could have delivered if his goal was to try to sort of calm the waters among Democrats.

I mean, look, there was a poll just out earlier this week that showed, you know, a lot of Democrats, it’s not just elected Democrats, rank-and-file Democrats are both supportive of Biden, but think he should not be seeking a second term. I have a feeling we're gonna see more polling on this and we’re gonna see that number even higher. But the panic level particularly among elected Democrats who have to share the ballot with him–there is a full-on panic tonight. 

Maybe they’ll get calmed down in the morning, but there is gonna be–there’s a lot of chatter among donors tonight, a lot of chatter among major elected leaders tonight. Again, if the Biden campaign–they have a lot of calming calls that they're gonna have to start making. Or they may–they may see this get momentum publicly and I don’t know if they can stop that.

(...)