Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe described President Joe Biden’s performance at the first 2024 presidential debate against Donald Trump on Thursday as “kind of a DEFCON 1 moment” for Democrats.
Biden is only three years younger than Trump but appeared to be “30 years apart” in age from the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Plouffe told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Biden’s fumbled performance has prompted some Democrats to call for him to be replaced on the 2024 ticket. Ultimately, though, Plouffe said “the only thing that matters, and you won’t really know for three or four days, is how the voters that will decide this election will react.”
Plouffe also suggested Trump may have “bombed as well” with swing voters ad that was a “tragedy” for Biden who may not have capitalized on that because voters’ fear about his age was “compounded.”
“Biden is behind narrowly right now” and “has to change the equation” but the “biggest barrier that’s keeping his ceiling too low is concerns about age,” said Plouffe.
“And I think that’s a tragedy because I think Trump had so many openings that you could have just scissored him up on tonight,” he added.
Watch Plouffe’s full commentary here: