After the Atlanta debate, Democrats are weighing whether Biden should be replaced on the November ballot.

After a 90-minute debate, it was the Democrats who suddenly found themselves confronted with the question that had long been at the center of speculation in Republican circles: should he be replaced on the party list?

No less than Vice President Kamala Harris was pressed on the issue minutes after being rushed on CNN by the campaign, a telling sign of how a scenario once ridiculed by party leaders was now at the forefront plan.

Harris acknowledged Biden’s “slow start” but said the president offered a “very clear contrast to Donald Trump on every issue.” The part of the question asking for her message to Democrats urging the president to step down went unanswered.

Trump did not have an exemplary performance, with rambling and sometimes unintelligible responses and a steady stream of lies and misleading statements about Biden’s agenda and Trump’s tenure himself.

But those sweeps were generally unchecked by Biden or the moderators. And Trump was allowed to sidestep many of the toughest questions, sometimes simply ignoring them. Trump’s critics have grudgingly admitted that he projected a sense of energy that Biden lacked.

“They’re three years apart. They seemed about 30 years apart tonight,” David Plouffe, a former adviser to Barack Obama, said on MSNBC. “And I think that’s going to be the thing that voters are really going to have a hard time coming out of this situation with.”

The damage caused by Biden’s debate failure was difficult to immediately determine, although concern — and even panic — seeped into different factions of his coalition.

Plouffe compared the confrontation to a “DEFCON 1 moment,” while Van Jones wondered on CNN whether there was time to “find another way forward.”

Credits: AP

Credits: AP

Mike Murphy, a veteran Republican strategist who supports the president, wondered aloud why Biden and his team would push for the first debate in modern U.S. history, despite the fact that Biden’s “toolbox is now limited because of his age.”

“My only guess is that Biden has it all together,” he said. “If not, it will be the biggest blunder in presidential political history.”

Others offered private complaints. Some noted that rather than allaying concerns about her health, the president has ensured that she will remain at the heart of the 2024 White House race. One Democratic donor sent a three-word piece of advice to the party: “Find someone else.”

“You all talk about style,” Warnock told reporters. “The people I talk to in the state of Georgia are not focused on style. They’re focused on their families. They’re focused on whether or not they can afford child care so they can work.”

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

And Biden, who said his raspy delivery was due to a sore throat, suggested that one bad night should not erase decades of public service. Besides, he told reporters during a late-night stop at Waffle House, “it’s hard to debate a liar.”

But internal divisions over Biden’s health could deepen as Democrats prepare for the party’s four-day convention in Chicago. Biden’s next chance to redeem himself on the debate stage isn’t expected until September 10 — if it happens.

There were already many rumors that Trump would not participate in the second debate, especially if his lead in the polls in Georgia and other key states continued. With his electoral base virtually assured, Trump could devote resources to convincing undecided voters worried about Biden’s health by citing global crises.

“I fear we are facing a situation in the world where the president seems compromised,” said Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. “What we saw tonight was a man who was more confused than not. The bad guys are watching too.

Steve Gooch, the Republican leader in the Georgia Senate, senses that the trajectory of the race has irrevocably changed.

“Joe Biden is not mentally fit to serve as president,” he said. “This is not a political statement. This is an indisputable fact proven this evening on live television.

Staff writers Taylor Croft and Maya T. Prabhu contributed to this report.