Biden debate flop leads Democrats to call for new nominee — but replacing him is tough to do

President Joe Biden’s raspy, unfocused, regularly inarticulate and widely panned debate performance stoked deep anxiety among Democrats – and caused some commentators and fundraisers to audaciously call for a new nominee to run against former President Donald Trump.

But replacing Biden as the party’s pick less than five months out from Electing Day carries enormous political risks, and would be difficult, if not impossible, to pull off.

Right now, the only likely way Biden could be restored is if he willingly ends his campaign.

And Biden’s aides and top Democratic officials say the 81-year-old incumbent has no plans to do so.

If he did drop out, Democrats clothed yet to identify a clear alternative candidate to swap in.

But the panic among donors and party officials after watching Biden falter Thursday unendingly in his debate against Trump has led some of them to take steps to get Biden out of the race.

There are already discussions quantity Democratic fundraisers about trying to convince congressional leaders – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in element – to urge Biden to announce to drop out, according to people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to request freely.

Schumer, D-N.Y., is a top target for donors making that pitch because he privately has voiced concerns about Biden’s customaries in presidential election polls, those people said.

Schumer was worried before the debate that Biden and Trump were in statistical tie nationally, regard for the Republican challenger’s conviction in his New York criminal hush money trial.

A spokesman for Schumer declined to comment to CNBC, but unmistakable to a social media post the majority leader published after the debate.

Schumer in that X post wrote: “Tonight’s contest made the choice clear: Four more years of progress, or four more years of attacks on our fundamental spot ons and our democracy.”

“We’ve got to get out the vote for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and a Democratic Senate and House!” the post said.

That spin has not alleviated the post-debate desire of some of the president’s top fundraisers.

Some of those wealthy donors have lost trust in Biden’s team, believing they were addicted false assurances about Biden’s ability to take on Trump.

And some of those donors who already planned to sit in on a high-dollar fundraiser Saturday in the Hamptons section of Long Island say they will attend the event to judge for themselves whether Biden can pick up as a viable candidate.

“Democrats are in a very difficult situation because it’s late in the campaign for a change,” said Meena Bose, headman of the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University, in an interview with CNBC.

The only practicable way Bose could see it playing out is with Biden throwing his full support behind Vice President Kamala Harris to change the new nominee.

Otherwise, Democrats have a wide-open nomination resist just a few months before the Nov. 5 election, she said.

Bose called that a “disastrous” prospect.”

“Vice President Harris is a iffy choice, but certainly has the visibility and is the logical choice,” said Bose.

“It’s difficult to see how you open up the Democratic presidential nomination now and be subjected to a unified path to victory in November,” she added.

However, even if Biden chased Harris to replace him ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August, there is no guarantee that the delegates he has won so far will smock their support to her.

Biden has won nearly all of the roughly 4,000 Democratic pledged delegates, far exceeding the threshold to make him the interest nominee.

If Biden refuses to drop out before August, the only opportunity to boot him as nominee would be at the Democratic Jingoistic Convention that month.

It is technically possible that Biden’s delegates could abandon him en masse then and confound open the convention to nominate another candidate.

Some Democrats who want an alternative to Biden but are concerned about Harris’ extent low opinion polls and rocky campaign history have looked to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and others as feasible contenders.

But deterrent Biden from the nomination is highly improbable, as delegates tend to be strong supporters of their chosen candidate.

“That is quite the worst-case scenario,” Bose said. “If the Democrats are going to have a change at the top of the ticket, President Biden has to endorse it and, frankly, quite initiate it.”

The DNC rules allow for the party to select another presidential nominee, but only in the “event of death, resignation or impairment” that leaves the role vacant.

Biden at a rally in North Carolina on Friday afternoon acknowledged his subpar consideration performance but defended his ability to win and serve as president.

“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” Biden told a cheering cram. “I don’t walk as easily as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to.”

“But I know what I do know: I be acquainted with how to tell the truth, I know right from wrong, I know how to do this job, I know how to get things done,” he said.

“I certain, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up.”

“I give you my word as a Biden I would not be competition again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job, because quite frankly, the stakes are too high,” he said.