The Trump campaign is demanding an apology from the White House and President Biden’s campaign for dismissing videos of Biden’s public gaffes and miscues as ‘cheap fakes’ and ‘misinformation’ promoted by conservatives. 

Following repeated instances of Biden appearing to stand motionless during public events, being guided offstage by family or allies, or appearing confused during public events, the White House slammed such videos as ‘cheap fakes’ promoted by the Trump campaign and its allies. Cheap fakes, under the White House’s definition, are understood as real videos that are cropped or edited in an allegedly deceptive manner. 

The Trump campaign fired back on Friday that following Biden’s debate performance, ‘everyone sees there’s NOTHING fake about Biden’s decline.’

‘It’s only been a week since our fantastic team @TrumpWarRoom & @RNCResearch were wrongly accused of editing ‘cheap fakes’ to make Biden look bad,’ Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X Friday. ‘The Democrats, and of course their mouthpieces in the Fake News, peddled this ridiculous lie.’

‘We actually had to spend time fighting ‘journalists’ on this ridiculous narrative and telling them Americans can believe their own eyes!’ she continued. ‘Now everyone sees there’s NOTHING fake about Biden’s decline. We were right and simply sharing the TRUTH!’

‘We will take an apology now,’ Leavitt added, tagging the Biden campaign and a handful of media outlets. 

When asked about the Trump campaign’s call for an apology, the Biden campaign told Fox News Digital that Trump is a ‘liar’ in addition to ‘a pathetic loser.’

‘Trump lied countless times during the debate and so does his campaign, in real life and on the internet. Trump lied Thursday about whether he called fallen soldiers suckers and losers, and he’s still triggered that mainstream media fact checkers called out his cheap fakes.  So sure, we will amend our previous statement: Trump is not just a liar he is also a pathetic loser,’ a spokesperson for the Biden campaign said.

The call for an apology comes after former President Trump and Biden faced off in the 2024 election cycle’s first debate on Thursday evening, with Biden subsequently coming under fire from conservatives and his traditional allies for his disastrous performance. The New York Times even called on Biden to drop out of the race over his performance, which underscored already mounting concerns over the president’s age and mental acuity.

Biden’s debate performance included him having a raspy voice, losing his train of thought at times, and stumbling over some responses. Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged this week that Biden had a ‘slow start’ to the debate, but defended his performance overall and his record in office since 2021. 

Leavitt told Fox News Digital that, in addition to apologizing to the campaign, Biden’s administration and campaign should ‘more importantly’ apologize to Americans. 

‘The Biden White House and entire Democrat Party are both directly implicated in the greatest coverup in U.S. political history — and the mainstream media is complicit in their lies to the American public about Joe Biden’s mental state. They owe an apology to not just our campaign, but more importantly to the American people, for this major scandal that has led to the demise of our country over the past four years,’ she said. 

Ahead of the debate, Biden faced criticism for a series of gaffes and missed cues during public appearances, including events abroad with fellow world leaders. Those include: former President Obama taking Biden’s wrist to seemingly lead him offstage at a fundraiser in Los Angeles this month; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni directing Biden back to a gaggle of world leaders in Italy this month after he took a few steps away from the group to give a thumbs up to a parachutist; and viral video showing the president standing relatively motionless during a Juneteenth concert event at the White House. 

The White House pushed back following criticisms of such videos that they were ‘cheap fakes,’ birthing a new 2024 campaign buzz word that was soon mocked by conservatives on social media, who argued that the administration was ‘gaslighting’ Americans. 

‘They are cheap fakes. . . . They are done in bad faith. And some of your news organizations have been very clear, have stressed that these right-wing . . . critics of the president have a credibility problem, because the fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation,’ White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this month of cheap fakes.

The Biden-Harris campaign also promoted the ‘cheap fake’ narrative, calling them ‘a huge part of Trump’s campaign strategy.’

‘Rob Flaherty, Biden-Harris Deputy Campaign Manager: Donald Trump is desperate to distract from his unpopular agenda. That’s why his campaign is deploying ‘cheap fakes,’ which are deceptively edited videos of President Biden. These doctored videos are a huge part of Trump’s campaign strategy,’ the campaign posted on X earlier this month. 

Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report described President Biden as ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’ — and numerous political analysts said that was exactly the impression that the president left on viewers of the debate on Thursday.

In the February report, which noted that Biden’s ‘memory also appeared to have significant limitations,’ Hur said he would bring no criminal charges against the president after a months-long investigation into his improper retention of classified documents related to national security.

‘Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt,’ the report stated. ‘It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.’

During and after Biden’s debate against former President Donald Trump this week, several political analysts took to social media to suggest that Hur, who faced criticism from Democrats and liberal media figures over the report’s comments about Biden’s memory and judgment, had been ‘vindicated’ and ‘deserves an apology.’

‘You know who’s looking really vindicated tonight? Special counsel Robert Hur,’ Jim Geraghty, National Review’s senior political correspondent and a Washington Post contributing columnist, said amid Biden’s performance.

Echoing Geraghty, Charles C.W. Cooke, a British-born American journalist and a senior writer at National Review Online, wrote in a post to X, ‘Robert Hur deserves an apology.’

Former Trump-era White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany also weighed in on Biden’s performance by referencing Hur.

‘Biden is worse than anyone knew. Robert Hur must have been truly shocked. Now the country is,’ McEnany, the co-host of Fox News’ ‘Outnumbered,’ said in a post to social media.

During the interview with Hur, Biden, according to the report, ‘did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’)’ 

‘He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Eiden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama,’ Hur’s report said.

Biden and his allies aggressively pushed back on concerns about his mental fitness in the report’s wake. Though a full transcript of the interview has been released, Republican lawmakers are still seeking audio tapes of the discussions.

Earlier this week, ahead of the debate, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said House Republicans will file a lawsuit next week to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hand over audio tapes of Hur’s interview with Biden.

‘We are going to file a suit next week against the — against the Department of Justice to enforce that subpoena. We’ll go to district court here in D.C., which is the appropriate venue, and we will fight vigorously to get it,’ Johnson told reporters at his regular press conference.

Attorney General Merrick Garland previously refused House GOP investigators’ subpoena for the audio tapes, citing Biden’s claim of executive privilege.

Garland’s refusal spurred House Republicans to hold him in contempt earlier this month, referring Garland to his own department for criminal charges. The DOJ ultimately declined to prosecute.

Following Biden’s debate performance, several media figures now support the release of the audio tapes from the president’s interview with Hur, including Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle.

‘If you hold out hope that Biden’s performance on Thursday was just an aberration, you should call for the administration to release the tapes of his interview with Robert Hur so we can all hear what he sounds like when he doesn’t have a cold,’ McArdle wrote in a post on X.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

A major conservative activist group is preparing for legal battles in case the Democratic Party chooses to pull President Biden out of the running before or after he becomes the nominee.

The Heritage Foundation, one of the United States’ most prominent and well-connected conservative activist groups, is laying the groundwork in case a sudden switch-up in the Democratic roster sparks a legal war.

‘We are monitoring the calls from across the country for President Biden to step aside, either now or before the election, and have concluded that the process for substitution and withdrawal is very complicated,’ Executive Director of The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project Mike Howell said in a statement. ‘We will remain vigilant that appropriate election integrity procedures are followed.’

Heritage has already identified multiple states in which a switch away from Biden before or after the nomination could mean serious trouble for the Democratic Party.

In a separate statement, the Oversight Project warned, ‘If the Biden family decides that President Biden will not run for re-election, the mechanisms for replacing him on ballots vary by state. There is the potential for pre-election litigation in some states that would make the process difficult and perhaps unsuccessful. 

‘Given the expected intensity of election integrity concerns in this election cycle, policymakers and the public should be educated and aware of the contentious path ahead,’ it added.

Heritage points out that many states — including swing states such as Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin — might not allow a replacement on the ballot.

Wisconsin does not allow a candidate’s name to be withdrawn from the ballot except due to death. Nevada allows changes to its ballot up until 5:00pm on the fourth Friday of June in the election year — it also allows special consideration for if nominees die or are determined to be mentally unable to proceed. 

Georgia would allow Biden to withdraw up to 60 days before the election. If Biden withdraws afterward, his name would remain on the ballot but votes for him would be discarded.

Other states have restrictions on timing and the reason for withdrawal from ballots, while others have no procedures on the books, making the prospect of switching Biden out an even more perilous legal minefield.

Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz told ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ that ‘This whole idea, this whole notion that maybe they should get a different candidate — that’s not how the system works, folks!’

‘It depends on the states. Elections are not run by the party, they’re not run by the federal government — they’re administered by states. Each state has state law,’ Chaffetz continued. ‘Once you go through the primary, once you go through the caucus, you have to follow that law.’

Jamie Metzl, who worked for President Biden during the Clinton administration as deputy staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was a senator, told Fox News Digital the president shouldn’t accept the nomination for the Democratic ticket after Biden’s debate performance. 

‘I have tremendous respect for Joe Biden. He’s my former boss. I think he’s a great person and a great American patriot. But I think most people seeing him in the debate last night would have to come to the conclusion that he may not have 4½ healthy years left where he can perform at the highest level that’s required for a United States president,’ said Metzl, author of the book ‘Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotech, and AI Revolutions Will Transform Our Lives, Work, and World.’ 

‘And so, it’s with a very heavy heart and deep sadness that I’ve come to the conclusion that the best step for the Democratic Party and for the country is for President Biden to announce that he will not seek the Democratic Party’s nomination to be the presidential candidate,’ Metzl said. 

Metzl said he believes Biden did an ‘excellent’ job in his first term, adding that before he took office, ‘we had significant attacks on our democracy and literally an attack on our Capitol. Our alliances were in shambles. So, I think that President Biden has done actually a quite good job. Certainly not perfect. And there’s lots of things that I and we can and should criticize.’

He added that calling on Biden to drop out is not ‘a statement about his performance in his first term as president. It’s a statement about what is required to be the president of the United States for four years. And, unfortunately, Joe Biden, who I greatly respect, I don’t believe has that capacity anymore.’ 

Metzl explained that he worked with Biden nearly 25 years ago, and that he notices a ‘marked difference’ between Biden then and now. 

‘And that’s perfectly normal. We all have parents and grandparents, and we see that age is a very real thing even for a vigorous person like President Biden,’ Metzl said. ‘When you get to be in your 80s, just the ravages of time catch up to us all. So, I have great respect for him, but I just think that we in the Democratic Party need to be brutally honest with ourselves. Because, if we’re not, the voters in November will certainly be brutally honest with us.’

Open convention

Metzl said while the Democratic Party has a provision for an open convention, I think it would be a mistake to begin this process then, because a person who is going to be the nominee needs to have legitimacy. Not just from being selected at the convention, but through some type of popular engagement and popular process. So, I think that President Biden should announce that he will not seek the nomination at some point over the next couple of days, and that anyone who wants to step forward should do so.’

He suggested that, over the next month, the candidates could have weekly debates about the leading candidates along with ‘old-fashioned retail politics at scale, where these candidates are going to have to, in a very condensed period of time, communicate who they are and what they stand for and engage with voters. This is not something that is comfortable. It would have been much better if we had had a regular primary, perhaps, beginning a year ago. But this is where we are now, and I think we need to make the most of it.’ 

Biden didn’t have any serious primary challengers and quickly became the presumptive Democratic nominee. His team also insisted Friday he wouldn’t consider leaving the race. 

I don’t know what’s realistic and what’s not,’ Metzl said when asked whether Biden would consider dropping out. ‘I certainly know that if President Biden and his team this morning had said, ‘We’re thinking about what’s the next step,’ it would have been game over from that point. So, they almost have to say, ‘We’re in it to win it’ now.’

‘Private conversations’

‘And the question will be what happens over the next couple of days? Perhaps there’ll be additional polls that will give information. Perhaps, very likely, there are private conversations. But I do think that, after the performance last night, it will just be impossible for President Biden to rebrand himself to the American people.’ 

Metzl said there are a number of Democratic candidates who could take Biden’s place, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

I certainly think that there are some strong candidates,’ he said. ‘But the problem is that, in our system, it takes a long primary year in many cases for people to get to know a candidate. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama were relative unknowns when they announced that they were running for the presidency. 

‘And it took all of the give and take of the primaries for the electorate to get to know them. So, it’s going to be an extremely tall order for people who, whether they’re governors or senators or others who aren’t that well known to the general public, to become so well known over the next month or so that they would have some tailwinds coming into the Democratic convention in August.’ 

While admitting it would be difficult for a replacement candidate to be able to beat Trump, Metzl said, I do think it’s possible. I do not think that Donald Trump is a strong candidate at all, and I don’t think the American people were well served by the choice.

‘President Biden is clearly looking his age, and it was clear from the debate last night that President Trump is unrepentant, and that he’s standing by the attacks on the United States Capitol, standing by efforts to undermine the structures of American democracy, standing by his efforts to cast doubt on our entire electoral system. And, so, that’s why I’m certainly not a fan of Donald Trump. I believe Donald Trump poses a pretty significant threat to American democracy. But President Biden is just not presenting a level of vigor that will make voters believe he will be capable of carrying out the responsibilities of president over the next four and a half years.’

Time to move on

If Metzl could speak to Biden, he said he would tell him, ‘President Biden, you are a personal hero of mine. You’re a man of great ethics, great integrity. You’ve contributed a great deal to this country, which you love. And now for your perhaps last and greatest act of patriotism, it’s time for you to pass the torch to a new generation.’

But, Metzl said, he will vote for Biden if he’s still on the ticket in November because he believes Trump is ‘unfit to be the president of the United States.’

‘By casting doubt on the electoral system, which, by all accounts, these last elections were the cleanest in American history, by supporting an attack on the capital of our own country, Donald Trump has made himself unfit for this role, in my view,’ Metzl said.

Metzl said it would be difficult for him to ‘change my views’ on Biden following the debate. 

Everybody saw the experience of the debate last night,’ he said. ‘It was deeply painful. It was deeply sad. It felt to me like King Lear. And while I have a great love and respect for President Biden, I believe the time has come. And I believe that he has one last great act of patriotism left in him. And I believe that making a statement that he will not accept the party’s nomination for the presidency is that statement.’ 

Presidential debates changed television.

‘You want to put a lot of new Supreme Court justices – radical left!’ hollered former President Trump at President Biden during the 2020 debate.

‘Will you shut up man?’ implored Mr. Biden.

And television changed politics.

‘It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, you’ve got to look good on television. Therefore, if you don’t, you’re doomed.’ It’s not quite that easy,’ said Walter Podrazik, television curator at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. ‘You have to learn how to speak directly through the medium that most people understand. They know television as well as any politician does because they watch it all the time.’

That was the problem facing President Biden in Thursday night’s debate with former President Trump.

Mr. Trump fared better because he appeared engaged. Vigorous. President Biden looked pasty and out of it.

It doesn’t matter what Mr. Biden represents or what his policies are.

When it comes to the debate, you must excel at television.

Debates imprinted the importance of live performance onto the debate genre.

That mixed reality TV with politics – long before reality TV was a thing.

‘I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience,’ quipped a 73-year-old President Ronald Reagan during a 1984 debate with former Vice President Walter Mondale, then a youthful 56.

‘They brought us whole binders full of women,’ said 2012 Republican nominee and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) at one of that year’s debates with former President Obama.

2016 Democratic nominee and former Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., was in the middle of saying something about the Social Security Trust Fund in a debate with Mr. Trump when he fired off this volley.

‘Such a nasty woman,’ sneered the former President.

Debates also amplify on-screen gaffes.

‘There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe,’ said President Gerald Ford in a debate with future President Jimmy Carter in 1976.

The remark shocked the press corps.

And Cold War Eastern Europe.

However, debates sometimes deliver unexpected humor.

‘I’m all ears!’ bragged 1992 independent Presidential candidate Ross Perot at a debate with future President Bill Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush.

Perot drew attention to his own features – which stuck out like two taxicab doors, attached to a crew cut.

Sometimes what’s said isn’t even what most people remember. People easily recall the visual of former President Trump, lurking and then creeping onto the screen behind Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Sometimes viewers recall what a candidate does during the debate.

Former Vice President and 2000 Democratic Presidential nominee Al Gore is remembered for his theatrical sighs of exasperation at various orations from future President George W. Bush.

And then there was Bush 41 in 1992 with Bill Clinton and Perot. All three candidates briefly rested against stools as ABC News Anchor and debate moderator Carole Simpson addressed the audience.

The elder Bush slipped a glance at his wristwatch.

Viewers interpreted that presidential peek as a subliminal cue that Mr. Bush’s time in office was up after one term.

The debate between President Biden and former President Trump marked a sea change in the way American voters experience the forum. Both campaigns worked directly with CNN to develop the debate. It’s the first major alteration to debates since 1988. The campaigns cut the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) out of the action this time.

Otherwise, each of the 33 Presidential or Vice-Presidential debates since 1988 has been under the aegis of the Commission. The CPD created the town hall format where average citizens could pose questions directly to the candidates.

That’s how Illinois power plant worker Ken Bone and his red sweater rose to prominence for a hot second after the 2016 town hall debate.

The CPD also hosted the debates at universities. Such was the case with the first debate on September 25, 1988, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., between then Vice President Bush and then Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis (D).

How they conduct the debates is almost as important as the debates themselves.

‘We want free and fair debates. This commission has shown bias,’ argued former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Fox Business in early 2022.

The RNC urged GOP Presidential candidates to refuse to participate in any debate not sanctioned by the GOP.

But the Biden campaign also rejected the Commission on Presidential Debates. It pushed for a June debate and another one in September. The Biden camp also demanded certain rules – including an option for moderators to mute the microphone of a candidate.

In short, both President Biden and former President Trump took their feud outside.

As in outside the Commission on Presidential debates.

Mr. Trump offered a dare to the President.

‘I’m calling on crooked Joe to debate any time, any place,’ said former President Trump.

President Biden called the bluff of his rival. Even chiding Mr. Trump about what day court was out of session in the defamation trial in New York.

‘Make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice,’ said President Biden in a message posted to X. ‘I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.’

And so the gamesmanship squeezed out the Commission on Presidential Debates.

‘What they wanted to do was what they thought was in the best interests of their candidate,’ said Frank Fahrenkopf, who led the CPD since its inception in 1987. ‘You’ve got two candidates who are unique.’

Fahrenkopf is upset the debates aren’t staged at universities.

‘You’ve lost that being on campus. Kids being involved. A Focus on civics,’ said Fahrenkopf.

Fahrenkopf also lamented the loss of the town hall meeting.

‘The most popular format,’ observed Fahrenkopf. ‘That’s gone.’

What would Ken Bone say?

The first modern Presidential debate unfolded in 1960. The first debate between future President John F. Kennedy and future President Richard Nixon forever fused the presidency and television. It established a paradigm for American politics – and television.

‘This is one of the few times in which neither party, neither candidate, controls the environment. And so, if you’re (a voter) trying to decide or if you’re looking for confirmation, then this is when you’ll see it,’ said Podrazik of the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

There were no more debates until 1976. The League of Women Voters ran the debates until the Commission on Presidential Debates stepped in for the 1988 cycle.

‘What politics did is provided a baseline reality that television can and could embrace,’ said Podrazik.

The debate between President Biden and former President Trump was the first without a studio audience since the initial forum in 1960. It was unclear whether future President John F. Kennedy or future President Richard Nixon won that contest.

Nixon sweated. He sported a five-o-clock shadow. Nixon’s knee smarted after he banged it getting out of the limousine arriving at the debate.

Meantime, Kennedy appeared cool and confident.

It’s said that those listening to the radio believed Nixon won. But people watching TV thought Kennedy prevailed.

But that’s debate folklore – even though publishers have printed that chestnut in every American political science textbook for decades.

I challenge you to locate the study or survey which proves the alleged Nixon/Radio versus Kennedy/TV thesis.

But, that old saw goes to show the importance of grasping the complexities of television – compared to raw debate, say on the radio.

And that’s something else the merging of television and politics provides.

‘It’s all in pursuit of the audience,’ said Podrazik.

And that’s a universal interest between media and politicians.

A Cornell University law professor has called on President Biden’s Cabinet to invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to have him removed from office after his weak debate performance Thursday night, claiming his ‘cognitive decline’ is a ‘national security threat.’ 

‘This debate displayed Biden’s severely declined cognitive ability for all the world to see for an hour and a half,’ Professor William Jacobson wrote Friday for Legalinsurrection.com. 

‘The media cannot claim the live video feed from CNN was a manipulated ‘cheap fake’ — the smear campaign used against those of us who have been pointing out the obvious for over a year, but particularly recently with Biden visibly freezing and zoning out in public appearances.’

He said while Democrats are focused on whether a ‘mentally diminished Biden’ can beat former President Trump in the election, ‘no honest person who watched last night’s debate can think that Biden mentally is up to the job of being President.’ 

He called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked to have Biden removed from office.

‘If I’m China, I’m taking off the shelf the war plans to invade Taiwan,’Jacobson said. ‘If I’m Iran, I’m breaking out towards a nuclear weapon. If I’m Putin, I’m doubling down on Ukraine and possibly other former Soviet satellites. Can you imagine an emergency situation where immediate military decisions that only a president can make need to be made in seconds or minutes, and the military having to go to diminished Joe for a decision?’

He added Biden’s ‘cognitive decline is a national security threat of the highest order.’

House Speaker Mike Johnson said something similar Friday. 

‘There’s a lot of people asking about the 25th Amendment, invoking the 25th Amendment right now, because this is an alarming situation,’ Johnson said. ‘Our adversaries see the weakness in this White House as we all do. I take no pleasure in saying that. I think this is a very dangerous situation.’

Under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, the vice president could assume the presidency if the president is declared unfit for office by the vice president and a majority of the president’s Cabinet or Congress. 

The 25th Amendment was briefly floated near the end of Trump’s presidency following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, which Jacobson called ‘in bad faith.’

‘Only Democrats can act, and they should before it’s too late,’ he added. 

Biden’s debate performance Thursday evening has worried Democrats, and some have even called for him to drop out of the race. 

President Biden’s inner circle is nowhere to be found following what has been described as an ’embarrassing’ and ‘disastrous’ performance by the incumbent Democrat during Thursday’s presidential debate.

Biden was widely panned by media figures and politicians immediately after the debate for his ‘weak’ sounding voice and ‘old’ appearance, as well as for ‘failing’ to convince Americans he has the stamina and ability to serve another four years in the White House.

Fox News Digital reached out to some of Biden’s closest confidants for their response to calls for him to be replaced as the party’s presidential candidate, but none stepped up to defend the president or offer any reaction to the debate. 

The list of Biden’s inner circle that has so far also not made any public comment following the debate includes, former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, who led debate preparations, his successor, Jeff Zients, senior campaign advisor Anita Dunn, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Counselor to the President Steven Richetti, and a number of others.

Each were part of the group of at least 16 current and former aides assisting with Biden’s debate preparations, which took place over a period of a week at Camp David in Maryland.

Vulnerable Democrats running in tight Senate and House races across the country also stayed silent concerning the debate, and largely didn’t respond to Fox News Digital’s questions surrounding calls for Biden to step aside.

Biden did, however, get some support from former President Obama, who still admitted he had a ‘bad’ debate.

In a message on X, Obama conceded that his former vice president failed to deliver a strong showing for the Democratic Party and the American people.

‘Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,’ Obama wrote.

He continued to deride former President Trump and prop up Biden, writing, ‘Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.’

President Biden is reportedly meeting with Democratic Party leaders in the aftermath of his disastrous first debate appearance.

Dougie Kass, fund manager of Seabreeze Capital Partners LP and a Democratic National Committee insider, said a meeting is being arranged between the president and two Democratic heavyweights.

‘What I am hearing regarding Joe Biden. Ron Klain and Barack Obama are having a sit down with the President today. Jill Biden is insistent that Joe runs,’ Kass claimed via social media  Friday. ‘Kamala is furious that she is not being considered as a replacement (Whitmer and Newsom are).’

Kass added, ‘Interestingly, my neighbor in East Hampton is hosting the Bidens tomorrow. It will be an important tell if the fundraiser is canceled.’

The hedge fund manager’s claim of Democratic leadership meetings comes after Biden’s universally panned debate against former President Trump Thursday night.

With a raspy voice and delivering rambling answers, Biden struggled during portions of Thursday night’s debate. He also lost his train of thought several times, raising concerns among his closest allies in politics and in the media. 

Some strategists have suggested the Democratic Party must act quickly to replace Biden before his nomination is made official in August.

Vice President Kamala Harris has been largely ruled out as a potential replacement due to her unpopularity with voters. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have previously been floated as potential last-minute replacements.

During an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Trump was asked if he believes Biden will be the Democratic nominee. 

‘Yes, I think he will be the nominee,’ Trump said.