Former Democratic lawmaker says party has ‘serious questions’ about Biden as the 2024 candidate following his ‘tough night’: ‘The president has lost his fastball’ and there will be a reckoning

Former Democratic Representative Harold Ford Jr. said Friday that the party would have “serious questions” going forward about President Joe Biden’s ability to be the 2024 presidential nominee after a “tough night.”

On Thursday, Biden’s reelection prospects were derailed by the release of special counsel Robert Hur’s report of classified documents, which referred to the president’s “diminished capabilities” and said a jury found him “a likable, well-meaning, older man with a bad memory’. ‘

The 81-year-old president poured salt on the wound during a press conference in which he addressed the report, saying Egypt’s president was from “Mexico.”

“The president lost his fastball,” Ford said. I think President Biden even in that interview last night, even in that press conference there, showed many Americans what Mr. Hur wrote.”

Ford suggested it could do a lot to hurt Biden politically.

“This last night will be the final ad in a campaign against the president as we approach November,” Ford told Fox & Friends. “The question is whether Democrats are willing to move forward between now and November with a candidate who many in the country believe is not fit for this job for the next four years.”

Ford indicated to Fox & Friends’ Brian Kilmeade that he believed Thursday could potentially change the trajectory of the 2024 race.

“I’ll answer it this way: If you asked me this question two or three days ago, the answer would be that it’s very unlikely that anyone else could be the nominee,” Ford said. “I think after last night that question becomes one that needs to be answered more candidly and thoughtfully.”

“And right now, I think Democrats are going to have to grapple with this in the coming weeks and months,” he continued.

“And there are very few elders in the party who might be able to have this conversation and we’ll see if they do,” the ex-lawmaker and Fox News contributor added.

With self-help guru Marianne Williamson out of the race, only one Democrat, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, Biden challenged for Democratic nomination.

Phillips’ support so far stands at just 19 percent in New Hampshire, a state where the president did not appear on the ballot because Democrats reshuffled their presidential primaries.

Phillips launched his campaign in October amid concerns about Biden’s old age.

President Joe Biden addressed the press Thursday evening following the release of special counsel Robert Hur’s blockbuster report, which asked whether the president suffered from memory loss.

The 55-year-old congressman had tried for months to recruit a better-known name for the Biden primary but failed, leaving Phillips to do it himself.

He pointed to polls showing Americans were wary of giving the sitting president four more years, and surveys showing Biden losing to former President Donald Trump.

Phillips said Thursday that the special counsel’s report all but handed the election to Trump.

“The report simply confirms what most Americans already know, which is that the President cannot continue to serve as our Commander in Chief beyond his term ending January 20, 2025,” Phillips said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

Allies of the president have tried several defenses over the past 24 hours, with some pointing to the fact that Hur was appointed by Trump and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pointing out on Friday that Biden took his entire career has named.