Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she isn’t calling for President Biden to step down when asked about calls from Democrats for the president to do so in the wake of his negatively reviewed presidential debate performance.
“I don’t know who’s doing that,” Pelosi said of the calls for Biden to step aside and make room for someone new to enter the race against former President Trump, according to MSNBC, in an audio clip played on anchor Ali Velshi’s show Saturday.
“I’m not doing it,” Pelosi said in the clip.
Biden’s debate performance, during which he had a raspy voice and stumbled over his words, sparked widespread fears among his party and raised questions about his viability at the top of the ticket. Even staunch Democratic figures, including those who have previously worked with former President Obama, let their feelings be known about how they thought Thursday night’s debate between Biden and Trump went.
“Obviously that debate was a f‑‑‑ing disaster,” former Obama administration speechwriter and “Pod Save America” co-host Jon Favreau posted Friday morning on the social platform X. “We have to beat Donald Trump. We have to have a nominee who can do that.”
Former Obama senior adviser and Democratic strategist David Axelrod said his party was rattled in the wake of the debate.
“I think there was a sense of shock, actually, at how he came out at the beginning of this debate. How his voice sounded. He seemed a bit disoriented. He did get stronger as the debate went on,” Axelrod said. “I think you’re going to hear discussions that I don’t know will lead to anything, but there are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”
Following the debate, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), urged fellow party members to “chill the f‑‑‑ out” after reports of anxieties among Democrats.
“I refuse to join the Democratic vultures on Biden’s shoulder after the debate. No one knows more than me that a rough debate is not the sum total of the person and their record,” Fetterman said in a post on X.