Anxious Iowa Democrats debate ditching Biden after ‘incoherent’ debate

Anxious Iowa Democrats expressed deep concern for President Joe Biden's candidacy after last week’s halting CNN debate against former President Donald Trump, but said they’re not in a position to call on Biden to exit the race.

Biden’s dismal debate performance on Thursday sparked a scramble among national Democrats and pundits, with many questioning his viability as the Democratic nominee and calling for him to bow out of the presidential election.

Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who served 30 years in the U.S. Senate, had sharp words for the president in a private note to friends Thursday night, which was later published.

"Last night was a disaster from which Biden cannot recover,” Harkin wrote. “He stood there with his mouth hanging open, head bowed down much of the time; it looked like someone put flour on his face for makeup.”

Harkin said Biden’s sentences “were mainly incoherent.” Though he said former President Donald Trump’s answers were “meandering, gobbledygook, and full of lies.”

He said Democratic senators should call on Biden to release his delegates and allow the party to choose a new nominee at convention.

In media appearances over the weekend, other top Democrats wrote off the debate as a bad night and refocused attention on Trump.

“President Biden is the only candidate who has defeated Donald Trump — a self-serving convicted felon who is the ultimate threat to our democracy and Iowans’ freedoms,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said in a statement to The Gazette.

Biden and his campaign have tried to quell concerns, pointing to the lies Trump told during the debate and shifting attention to Biden’s record rather than his debate performance.

“I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don't debate as well as I used to,” Biden said in a rally Friday, “but I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth.”

Iowa Republicans seized on Biden’s poor performance last week and called on top Democrats to say whether they supported Biden as their nominee for president.

“The Democratic Party is in shambles right now and they need to be transparent about who they support for President,” said Iowa GOP spokesperson Luke Wolff. “Republicans are united — can the Democrats say the same thing? Their silence is deafening.”

Sarah Corkery, a Democrat who’s running in Eastern Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, acknowledged Biden’s weak showing, but said she still stands behind the president.

“I don't think anyone was encouraged by the debate performance of President Biden,” Corkery said, adding Biden’s campaign should not have let him debate if he was feeling ill. A Biden aide said the president had been battling a cold.

The one good thing to come from the debate, Corkery said, is panic over Biden’s performance has “lighted a fire.”

“Democrats in Iowa and across the nation have woken up and are paying attention, and that is step one to reengaging all Democrats, especially Democrats in Iowa, to get to the polls this fall,” she said.

Corkery would not say whether Biden should stay in the race or drop out.

“He alone needs to make that decision; not Sarah Corkery, but I hope he's getting good counsel,” she said.

Rep. J.D. Scholten, a Democrat running for re-election to the Iowa House in Sioux City, acknowledged Biden had a “poor debate” on Thursday, but said he’s not in a position to call for Biden to exit the race.

Scholten said he wasn’t a Biden supporter in the 2020 primary but said Biden has been “the best president of my lifetime on things that matter to me.” Scholten noted the administration’s antimonopoly efforts in the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice as major policy achievements.

Even if Biden’s already weak approval rating in Iowa gets worse following the debate, Scholten said he doesn’t think that has much of an effect on his own campaign for the Iowa House. He said his approach will be the same regardless of the party’s presidential candidate.

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Linn Dems Chair: Biden stepping down could cause more chaos

Bret Nilles, chair of the Linn County Democrats and a Biden delegate, worries Biden stepping down will cause more chaos for Democrats, leading to party infighting at a time when it needs to unified in defeating Trump.

“The timing is so bad because it throws the national convention into chaos,” Nilles said. “When I look around, there are a lot of good people out there, but we’re so far down that path it’s hard for the president to step aside and people within the Democratic Party to decide: What do we do next?”

While worried about a lack of enthusiasm about Biden, Nilles said it’s up to the 81-year-old to show he is up to the job and can keep Trump out of office.

“At this point in time, it’s the president’s decision and I think most people will rally around and stand by that decision … because they know what the alternative is,” he said.

State Rep. Sami Scheetz, a Cedar Rapids Democrat running for re-election, said while Biden’s debate performance “was deeply concerning,” he fully supports the president staying in the race, “because a second Trump presidency will be ruinous to our democracy.”

That said, Scheetz said the party needs to have “frank and honest discussions” about its path forward.

“ … For Iowa Democrats running down-ballot, the uncertainty can be challenging, but it also highlights the importance of focusing on local issues and the direct impact that right-wing policies in Des Moines have had on our community,” Scheetz said.

Bill Gluba, a former Davenport mayor, ex-Democratic state lawmaker, and past Congressional candidate, said he thinks Joe Biden needs to have a “come to Jesus moment” with his advisers and retire.

Gluba called the June 27 debate a “dumpster fire from beginning to end.”

“It looks like Joe is in the early stages of dementia or something,” Gluba said. “The public saw what I saw. If the Democrats continue with Biden, in my judgment, we will lose everything. It will be a disaster for this country to have someone like Trump who has disregard for the law.”

Gluba said he thinks California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock should form a coalition and present themselves as potential nominees at the Democratic National Convention.

“This is about maintaining democracy,” Gluba said. “Trump is a demagogue and a liar. These other issues are important, but preserving the rule of law is above everything else.”

How will the debate affect voter opinions?

Christopher Larimer, a professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa, said for as much criticism as Biden received after Thursday’s debate, it’s not likely to persuade Democratic-leaning voters to switch their support to Trump. Instead, it may lead to a drop in polling support.

“They may be less likely to answer pollsters’ questions or they express less excitement about their candidate, but they’re not leaving their candidate at the end of the day. They’re just frustrated by it,” he said.

A CBS/YouGov poll released Monday suggests concerns about Biden’s mental fitness grew after the debate. The survey, taken between June 28 and 29, found that 72 percent of voters think that Biden does not have the mental and cognitive health to serve as president. Sixty-five percent said the same thing on June 9.

When it comes to Trump, 49 percent said he does not have the mental and cognitive health to serve.

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Larimer said he’s unsure how voters’ opinions would change if Biden were replaced by another candidate at the top of the Democratic ticket. Voters’ reactions, he said, would be filtered along partisan lines. While it could energize and mobilize Democratic voters, it would still present a risk for the party.

Sarah Watson of the Quad-City Times contributed to this report.

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