'What was wrong with him?' MSNBC hosts get 'panicked' texts from Dems melting down over Biden debate (2024)

MSNBC host Joy Reid admitted that Democrats are on the verge of a "full-fledged panic" following President Biden's alarming debate performance against former President Trump on Thursday.

Biden, who spoke with a hoarse, raspy voice, had a number of verbal missteps throughout the 90-minute CNN debate where he appeared frail and incoherent at various times on stage. The White House attributed this to "a cold."

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During the post-debate analysis on MSNBC, Reid said Democrats, specifically "campaign people," were frantically texting her with concerns that Biden appeared "extremely feeble and weak," adding that his performance left many in his own party rattled heading into November.

President Joe Biden walks off stage during the CNN Presidential Debate at the CNN Studios on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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"Obviously, Joe Biden comes inwith certain deficits.He has a stutter.It is more difficult for him tocommunicate for that reason.So there is a lot to mitigatethe way that he speaks, and youcan understand it.We have observed for a longtime.

"That said, I, too, was on thephone throughout much of thedebate with Obama world people,with Democrats, with people whoare political operatives, withcampaign operatives.My phone really never stoppedbuzzing throughout.And the universal reaction wassomewhere approaching panic,"Reid said.

"The people who were textingwith me were very concernedabout President Biden seemingextremely feeble, seemingextremely weak," she continued.

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The longtime White House defender said the president's primary job was to convince his own party that he possesses the mental and physical abilities to serve another four years in office. Biden, she said, "did the opposite."

"He needed to settle Democrats…Democrats always talk aboutDemocrats are bed wetters,Democrats [are] always panicking… they are neurotic.But Joe Biden’s job was toreassure them tonight.His job was to calm his party,to make them feel that, ‘Yes, Ican do this.I have four more years in me.I have the ability and thestamina and the strength to dofour more,’" she said.

"He did not do that.He did the opposite of that,"she said. "He made them more panicked.The people who were texting mewere even more panicked.They actually expected it to bebetter than it was, and nowthey are in, I won't say afull-fledged panic, but it isgetting there."

Reid said that Biden "passionately believes that he is the only person who can beat Donald Trump,.

"The problem is, after tonight, his party does not believe that."

MSNBC host Joy Reid said, ‘The people who were textingwith me were very concernedabout President Biden seemingextremely feeble, seemingextremely weak.' (Screenshot/MSNBC)

MSNBC host Nicole Wallace expressed a similar sentiment, acknowledging that there will be "a lot of concern" surrounding Biden's debate performance in the days to come.

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"I was on the phones for some of it afterthat became clear, and there isa conversation happening insideBiden’s circle and certainly amuch more frank conversation happeninginside the Democraticcoalition.And I think there will bestories of a lot of concernabout the performance tonight," she said.

When Rachel Maddow asked her to clarify her remarks, Wallace did not mince words.

"I think conversations range [from] whether he should be in this race tomorrow morning to what was wrong with him…," she replied. "The voice was very, very soft.It wasn’t the Joe Bidenperformance at the State of the Union.It wasn’t seizing a moment toget on the offensive onimmigration.It wasn’t Joe Biden on theoffensive on January 6. Itwasn’t Joe Biden on theoffensive on abortion, his two shining issues."

Wallace faulted the CNN moderators for not fact-checking former President Trump, who she said "lied as often as he breathed."

"But, they did give Joe Biden time to fact-check and he didn’t do much ofthat, either." she said.

"It is not our job to tellpeople what to see and hear," Wallace added, "butwhat I heard from a Biden aideis, ‘We can’t necessarily spintoo much what people did seeand hear.’"

Reid appeared to blame Biden campaign staff for making the optics worse because they assigned him the podium on the right side of the screen.

"Biden likes to look over at the moderators and to look away. Had he been on the left, he would've been facing Donald Trump. He looked like he was looking off camera," she said. "Every decision they made, exacerbated the problem."

US President Joe Biden speaks as he participates in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at CNN's studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024. ((Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images))

MSNBC host Alex Wagner, who joined the channel from the debate spin room in Atlanta, cast a grim picture when asked about the mood among Democrats and Biden allies on site.

"I am not going to put a finesheen on it, or a spin on it,even though I am in the spinroom.There has been a uniformlynegative reaction to Biden’sperformance tonight," she said.

"Surely, as Joy said, this wasabout revealing who DonaldTrump was, but it was also JoeBiden battling a caricature ofhimself as an enfeebled person,an impression that Trump hasbeen eager to convey to thecountry, and he did nothing todisabuse, I think, the countryof the notion that he is veryold and was lost frequently inthat debate."

Wagner said Biden was "rambling and incoherent" during responses that should've been a "layup for him."

"He turned a response onabortion into a mention ofa migrant killing.I mean, this is a person thatclearly was over prepared andhad a lot of different pointsthat were sort of swimmingaround in his head, and as aresult, it felt like theanswers that were legible, ifyou will, were not nearlydelivered with the force andthe clarity that they should’vebeen," she said.

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace said Democrats are reconsidering whether Biden should be in the race as of tomorrow morning. (Screenshots/MSNBC)

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"Donald Trumpwas, in some ways, the most‘Trumpy’ he has been lately,full of lies andmisinformation, but it was almost anafterthought.The press that I’ve spoken withand the, sort of, the focus inthis room is just that the Bidencampaign wanted this debate.This was their idea.And this is what happened aspart of their strategy.It is confounding," Wagner said.