while the first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump was held last night the two faced off in person in a very controlled setting no live audience no factchecking from the moderators and each candidate's microphone turned off when the other was speaking well that let the viewers focus on the candidates themselves and for President Joe Biden it was a performance that's left Tremors Rippling through the Democratic party today many concerned with his inability to complete an answer or spar with Trump and former president Trump once again demonstrated his questionable relationship with the truth stating falsehoods throughout the night most of which went unchecked so what impact will this debate have on a race that's been neck and neck up until now I'm joined by Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky and Republican strategist Chris Russell to offer their take on the candidates performances we have to start with last night's performance from President Biden any voters who were concerned about his ability to do this job at his age probably left last night's debate uh feeling some deep fear Julie I'm going to start with you we've seen all morning calls for President Biden to step aside is this the right decision what do you make of it and is it time for President Biden uh to step aside right now look I'm not going to sugarcoat it that was an absolutely horrific performance last night um it was so bad that I actually had to walk out of the room for a few minutes because it was so painful to watch if Joe Biden's not out by mid next week then he's not getting out and so the only person that can make that decision for Joe Biden is Joe Biden I think frankly the more people pressure him to do it the the less he's going to be willing to do it the only person who probably has some say in whether he's going to be able to get out or not as his wife and possibly his his children but I will also say this if he does not get out Democrats need to stop the bed wedding Democrats need to stop the hand ringing they need to Rally around Joe Biden regardless of of of what happened last night and make it clear that the choice is between an old and possibly feble Joe Biden and somebody who is going to absolutely disrupt the American experiment become an autocrat as he said a dictator on day one and who's a convicted felon and has been adjudicated to be a sexual offender a Charged rapist so uh look the contest is not clear when you frame it in that way um all Democrats need to do is just calm down let Joe Biden make a decision on his own and if he stays in the race then enough of the enough of the second guessing let's go let's go this is a this is a battle and we have to win it it's not exactly a platform that's going to turn out a ton of undecided voters uh middle of the country where he really needs to he needs to secure the votes but let's just play out a hypothetical here if you say by next midweek uh he agrees I'm not the one to do this job what next for Democrats how do they coales around any replacement candidate in four months time well first of all there's a convention uh in one month's time about six weeks time that they need to get through Biden has the delegates and they're bound to him and on the first ballot they have to vote for him um it's going to be very hard because KLA Harris is not somebody that I think the rest of the part is just going to coordinate but on the other hand um how do you say no to the first potentially black female president when the black women have been the backbone of this party for the last 55 years it's a a very complicated thing to do you cannot push her aside without at the same time pushing aside the most important constituency to Democrats so this you know for everybody that's sitting there fantasizing about some some night riding in and saving Democratic party this is going to be a messy process if he does get out and it's going to be a messy process at a time when we all have to sit there and and have a huge Civil War among ourselves as opposed to focusing on the threat at hand you know winter is coming my friends if you want to use a game of throne analogy we're all fighting amongst ourselves here about Joe Biden so there's an existential threat in Donald Trump that we should be focusing on at the moment Chris I'm going to turn to you you know president Trump former president Trump had his own issues last night his answers on abortion his answers on January 6th um those are answers that in the past have turned off undecided voters do you think he hurt himself among that constituency last night listen last night was all about Joe Biden and it was a spectacle and a sad one uh for the country uh he he not only does he look like he can't do four more years I'm not sure he can do six more months and I think people saw that last night not just Republicans but Democrats and those independent swing voters you're talking about I think that dominated the feelings people had watching the debate it dominated certainly the coverage after the debate it's dominating this conversation so Donald Trump I thought did a solid job last night he could do better of course but Joe Biden was so terrible that in comparison uh Donald Trump shined and I think in that case he already had a small lead across the country uh that walking into that debate God knows what the polls will show uh in the next week or two after that debate look those of us who follow politics who know some of the Nuance of the answers that he gave right we know that the the fact check you know kind of Dinger was going off all night um we didn't see to your point we did not see President Biden challenge him on some of those points neither did the debate moderators are you saying that it doesn't matter that the answers he gave don't matter because everyone's focused on President Biden and so Trump's answers didn't matter people know getting with Donald Trump at this point they know they know where he stands in these issues they you know they've taken into account things Julie said in her in her uh portion right before I mean they that is baked in the cake uh and right now the race is about Joe Biden whether he is fit to serve and until Democrats figure that out he's gonna Trump's gonna continue to separate himself from Joe Biden and at some point it will become irretrievable uh so I agree with Julie I thought she articulated it well what what faces Democrats in the coming weeks here um but if Joe bid is the candidate I just don't know how you run a campaign with a candidate who can't go out there and do the most basic things that candidates have to do all right quick question to both of you Julie do you think that voter apathy is going to be the deciding factor here couple seconds I don't think voters are apathetic at all I think it's a question of whose Mo voters are more motivated to go out and and get there in the few very few undecided voters who need to be persuaded one way or the other Chris do you think that uh perhaps politicians and even voters who were hesitant to embrace Trump now Embrace him after last night I think they look at it last night that there's really only one alternative and I think some of those people and we talked there's a lot of talk about whether there's voters who don't like either candidate last night uh the lesser of two evils for those people will be Donald Trump uh and and that's the problem Democrats have facing them all right that's all the time we have Chris Russell, Julie Roginsky thank you both so much appreciate your perspective thank you