A bad night for Biden. But Trump didn't do himself much good.

Please take a deep breath.

As I began to write this a few hours after the first debate between President Biden and Donald Trump, my social media feeds and text messages were blowing up with a bit of panic, as were Democrats and progressives on TV.

We’re hearing about calls to replace Biden on the ticket, coming from Democratic strategists, and about fear among donors and Democratic politicians.

It’s safe to say most of us had a feeling of dread when Biden came on stage and was shaky and halting. His voice was hoarse (he reportedly had a cold). He was unfocused and confused. He allowed Trump to lie and lie and lie again, to even own the issues of abortion and January 6th—Biden’s issues!—and spin them around.

The Signorile Report is reader-supported. If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!

The CNN moderators were terrible, doing no fact-checking and allowing Trump to refuse to answer most questions and continue attacking Biden. But that is baked in. We—and Biden—knew this kind of thing about the media going into it, and Biden is the one who wanted this debate.

Biden rattled off numbers but sometimes got them wrong and tripped up on his words, stumbling into saying, “We beat Medicare.” He was not emotive but rather stiff and cold, offering a blank stare that seemed to show he was horrified and not comfortable. When he wasn’t doing that he was often looking down and not into the camera. It wasn’t the Biden who enjoyed—with a big smile—slamming down Marjorie Taylor Greene and Republicans at two consecutive State of the Union addresses.

Later on, Biden came alive a bit more, and was more focused, particularly as Trump became a bit more meandering, pushing his lies. Biden flashed a rare smile or two, and he gave some cogent push back. But it was probably after a lot of people tuned out.

Phones blew up, and by the end of the debate, many of us were asking, “What the hell are we going to do?”

Two hours later, I’d taken a few deep breaths.

First off, Trump was a brazen liar as usual, and one hilarious, memorable moment will be his stating, “I didn’t have sex with a porn star.” Much worse than that, however, were the insulting lies that all Americans know are dangerous falsehoods.

Trump claimed the narrative around Charlottesville—that he said there were “fine people on both sides,” which we all watched him do—was “a story that has been totally wiped out.” He claimed Nancy Pelosi’s own daughter vindicated him for the attack on the Capitol on January 6th and implicated her own mother was responsible. A complete and total fabrication.

It went on and on. We won’t know for a while what the outcome of this debate is for the electorate, but Trump, who began in a very cool and collected place (for him) became increasingly agitated and spewed lies. It didn’t seem to me to do anything to bring in swing voters or assuage those Nicki Halley voters.

At the same time, Biden didn’t check him on the lies, and some of these were so easy—particularly on January 6th and abortion, which Trump claimed he’d done great things on by getting Roe overturned.

So, yes, it was not great. Later, however, at a Biden debate watch party aired on TV, the president came onto the stage and gave some warm words to the crowd, a short speech in which he was lucid and connected, completely in the moment. It was a relief of sorts since it proved that the most distorted imaginings of the far right regarding Biden’s mental acuity and sharpness are not true—a fear that pulsed through us during the debate—and he surely was up to the job of running the country.

He just had a really bad night. Perhaps with a cold, and at 81, we’d all have a similar night. But we’re all not running for president, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

People need to take a deep breath, let this settle in, express their dread and fear over the next few days, and see where it goes.

Biden could give a speech in the coming days, not only showing he’s in the moment but also addressing what happened—and admitting it was a disaster and humbling. That would go a long way. President Obama did terribly in his first debate with Mitt Romney, and it happens with most incumbents in the first debate.

Again though, the stakes weren’t like they are now. The talk of replacing Biden will continue, but only Biden can make that decision, so this is pure speculation. He may indeed decide not to continue running. Then the Democratic Party will have to figure out who the candidate is and perhaps take this to the convention.

That’s something many of us previously saw as enormously risky and potentially destabilizing. But where there’s a will—like a moment of dread and the fear of Trump becoming president—there’s a way. People could come together and get behind a candidate if Biden, Vice President Harris, and others take the lead.

But that’s getting down the road. We have to see how this plays out in the coming weeks. Focus groups last night of undecided voters surprisingly—or not surprisingly—showed Donald Trump didn't gain anything, and one focus group of Latino voters actually showed all of them deciding to support Joe Biden.

So, as I now finish this upon waking up, now nine hours removed from the debate, I again say, take a deep breath. We’ll see how it plays out, but one thing is certain: we’re united in beating Trump, who is a terrible threat and a bad candidate and can be easily beaten. And we will come together and do that one way or another.