Biden tries to minimize debate fallout with North Carolina campaign stop as Trump heads to Virginia for a rally: Follow U.S. politics live updates

An exclusive poll for DailyMail.com shows a clear majority of independent voters believe President Joe Biden should no longer be the Democratic nominee, following a car crash debate with Donald Trump.

About 62 percent said he should be dumped from the ticket.

Biden looked all his 81 years Thursday evening as he repeatedly lost his train of thought and wandered off into the silence.

Biden’s campaign faced scathing TV comments Thursday evening in the minutes after the presidential debate ended. And the criticisms continued to come Friday morning as Americans woke up to process the news.

“A lot of people needed a drink after last night,” CBS This Morning host Gayle King said at the top of her broadcast.

“He had one job to do last night, Bob. Just one, really,” she told correspondent Robert Costa in clear frustration that there was no organized Democratic push to get Biden to relinquish the nomination despite his flagging performance.

Sarah Ewall-Wice, senior US political reporter

President Biden and Donald Trump hit the campaign trail to rally supporters a day after their face-to-face meeting on the debate stage in Atlanta.

Biden left for Raleigh, North Carolina, late Thursday night for a campaign rally Friday afternoon. He will be accompanied there by First Lady Jill Biden.

The Biden campaign is eyeing North Carolina as a battleground state that could potentially flip blue in November.

Trump will deliver a speech Friday afternoon in Chesapeake, Virginia, near Virginia Beach.

He lost Virginia to Democrats in 2016 and 2020, but the state elected a Republican governor in 2021. Trump’s team sees the state taking action in November.

The former president will be joined at his event by GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

By Geoff Earle, deputy US political editor in Atlanta

Pennsylvania’s telegenic Governor Josh Shapiro took to the airwaves hours after Joe Biden’s debate flop to tell members of his party to “stop worrying” and rally behind the presumptive nominee.

Shapiro, 51, appeared as a surrogate for Biden’s campaign after key Democratic aides panicked over the president’s faltering performance. Influential columnist Tom Friedman called Biden’s performance “heartbreaking” and said he had “no business being re-elected.”

“I would say to all those people who are worried right now, get going and stop worrying,” he told CNN. He acknowledged that Biden had a “bad night” and said the campaign needed a “sharper message.”

“It’s not easy to debate a pathological liar,” he said. He then blamed the debate hosts after Biden stumbled and lost his train of thought in many of his answers, occasionally staring down as Trump smashed his record, and making several false statements, according to fact-checkers. “I think CNN could have done a better job of exposing these lies,” he said.

New York Democrat Ritchie Torres was unimpressed with the performances of both candidates last night.

The first showdown of the 2024 presidential debate was full of extraordinary moments.

From the start, President Biden’s advanced years were on full display, as he froze mid-sentence just 12 minutes into the speech. He also repeatedly cleared his throat due to a cold.

That was just the beginning of his debate gaffes and mumblings, which sent Democrats into a panic, leading some to say Biden should be replaced at the top of the 2024 ticket.

Democratic and Republican political pundits were nearly unanimous on who came out on top at the end of the night. DailyMail.com breaks down the analyses of top political minds: