Oh dear. The Democrats are reeling from Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in the first presidential debate of the election (the next is 75 days away). After the US president stopped and started, looked puzzled and struggled to answer questions, commentators are out in force suggesting Biden is not fit for a second term. Yet this time something has changed. It’s not just the usual critics. For a sense of how this time, Biden is in real trouble take a look at the CNN panel.

The US broadcaster is known for being the channel for Democrats – and against Donald Trump at all costs. Yet during and after the debate, there was a funereal feel to proceedings. Joe Biden’s former director of communications could not hide her disappointment. Kate Bedingfield declared: ‘there’s no two ways about it, that was not a good debate for Joe Biden’. Van Jones, a former Biden staffer who now serves as a regular CNN political commentator, summed it up when he suggested Biden could now have to consider if there is a need ‘for this party to consider a different way forward’:

CNN feels like Biden’s funeral

“It’s not just panic, it’s pain.” pic.twitter.com/h3MKtuiCcu

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) June 28, 2024

‘That’s a good man. He loves his country, he’s doing the best he can. But he had a test to meet tonight to restore confidence of the country and the base and he failed to do that. I think there’s a lot of people who were going to want to see him consider taking a different course now. We’re still far from our convention and there is time for this party to consider a different way forward if he will allow us to do that.’

Expect the number of Democrats asking whether Biden can hang on to grow in the coming days.