LinkedIn co-founder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman is standing behind President Biden in the face of calls to replace him on the Democratic Party ticket.
Hoffman expressed his support for the president’s re-election campaign in an email sent to friends on Friday evening and widely reported in the media.
The DNC insider acknowledged that Biden’s disastrous debate performance “certainly delivered a blow to the mood among donors and organizers” but shifted the blame onto the audience for caring more about the president’s “slower motion and speech” than former President Donald Trump’s “dementia.”
DEMOCRATS TALK BIDEN REPLACEMENT FOLLOWING ‘WEAK’ DEBATE PERFORMANCE: ‘HE FAILED’
Following the Thursday night presidential debate, there has been widespread discussion regarding the possibility of swapping Biden out for another candidate.
Hoffman said any campaign to pressure Biden into stepping down would be counter-productive, claiming Biden is a “resolute fighter” and public criticism might “compel the Bidens to try to prove the doubters wrong.”
The LinkedIn chairman said Democrats must learn from the MAGA movement’s reaction to Trump’s felony convictions, urging them to close ranks around Biden and remember that “fundamentals matter vastly more than a single debate” in the election.
MEDIA FIGURES SHOCKED AT BIDEN’S ‘BAD’ DEBATE PERFORMANCE: ‘TOTAL AND COMPLETE DISASTER’
“I tuned into Biden’s rally in North Carolina this afternoon. He was energized and brutally effective in taking down Trump’s vitriol and lies,” Hoffman wrote in the email. “I wish we’d had that Biden last night, but that’s the nature of Joe Biden.”
Shortly after the conclusion of the debate in Atlanta, a firestorm erupted with talk of Democrats replacing Biden as their party’s nominee in the 2024 presidential election.
One well-connected Democratic source told Fox News after the debate that the House and the Senate are Republican – for now, adding that “everyone is freaking out” and that Biden “needs to go.”
Former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, said during an appearance on MSNBC after the debate that Biden “failed” to show Americans he was “up to the job at his age.”
The talk about Democrats weighing their options on who will serve as the party’s presidential nominee was also amplified by John King, CNN’s chief national correspondent, who said after the debate, “Right now, as we speak, there is a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party.”
Despite the reports of replacement chatter among Democrats, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who many pundits have touted as a possible replacement for Biden should things go awry for Democrats ahead of the 2024 election, insisted the party’s “nominee is Joe Biden.”
Fox News Digital’s Kyle Morris contributed to this report.
