CBS News:  Mr. Biden stumbled through many of his answers early on in the debate and sounded like he was losing his voice, apparently because he has been battling a cold. While he improved over the course of the night, he often lost his train of thought and struggled to communicate his positions on a variety of issues. His performance alarmed many of his fellow Democrats. "I've never seen a freakout like this," one House Democrat told CBS News, referring to reaction among party lawmakers.

Biden loses train of thought, struggles to name Medicare

Mr. Biden stumbled in the first minutes of the debate, struggling to name Medicare when he was answering a question about the tax rate for wealthy Americans. 

"We have 1,000 trillionaires in America — I mean billionaires in America. And what's happening? They're in a situation where they, in fact, pay 8.2% taxes, if they just paid 24%, 25% — either one of those numbers — we'd raise $500 million dollars — billion dollars, I should say — in a 10-year period," he said, listing off a number of priorities like paying for child care, health care and "making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with, dealing with everything we have to do with, uh…" 

The president then paused and struggled to come up with the word. 

"Excuse me," he said, "dealing with everything we have to do with…" 

The president then paused again. 

"Look, if we finally beat Medicare," he continued. 

"Thank you, President Biden," Tapper said. "President Trump?" 

"He did beat Medicaid, he beat it to death," Trump said. 

Democrats rattled by Biden's performance: "I've never seen a freakout like this"

House Democrats are concerned by Mr. Biden's debate performance. They had hoped the debate could propel Mr. Biden into the summer, but that didn't happen.

"I've never seen a freakout like this," one House Democrat familiar with conversations among lawmakers said Thursday night. The person cautioned that it's unclear how seriously some Democrats would push for Mr. Biden to step aside from the race. 

The president's former White House communications director, Kate Bedingfeld, expressed concern live on CNN, calling it a "really disappointing debate performance." 

"I don't think there's any other way to slice it," she said. "His biggest issue was to prove to the American people that he had the energy, the stamina — and he didn't do that."

NBC News:  'Babbling' and 'hoarse': Biden's debate performance sends Democrats into a panic. The president often had a weak, raspy voice during his first debate against Trump, in what Democrats had hoped would be a turning point in the race. In the opening minutes, the president repeatedly tripped over his words, misspoke and lost his train of thought.  In one of the most notable moments, Biden ended a rambling statement that lacked focus by saying, “We finally beat Medicare,” before moderators cut him off and transitioned back to Trump. Trump also pounced on Biden, saying at one point that he didn’t understand what Biden had just said with regard to the border. “I don’t know if he knows what he said either!!” Trump said.  

But there were problems aside from the shakiness of Biden's voice. When he wasn't talking, Biden often stared off into the distance. Trump frequently steamrolled over Biden, accusing him of being a criminal and for peddling misinformation — many times without a response from Biden. “Democrats just committed collective suicide,” said one party strategist who has worked on presidential campaigns. “Biden sounds hoarse, looks tired and is babbling. He is reaffirming everything voters already perceived. President Biden can’t win. This debate is a nail in the political coffin.”  A Democratic consultant who works on down-ballot races added. “It’s hard to argue that we shouldn’t nominate someone else.”

NBC News: The debate was viewed by tens of millions of people.  Former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro said in a post on the social platform X that, “Biden had a very low bar going into the debate and failed to clear even that bar. He seemed unprepared, lost, and not strong enough to parry effectively with Trump.  Georgia State Rep. Billy Mitchell, a leading Democrat in the suburban Atlanta Democratic heartland of DeKalb County, said he thought Joe Biden could overcome his debate performance.

MSNBC News: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, in an interview on MSNBC after the debate, said in response to a question about panic in his party: “There shouldn’t be.”  “I think it’s unhelpful. And I think it’s unnecessary. We’ve got to go in, we’ve got to keep our heads high. And as I say, we’ve got to have the back of this president. You don’t turn back because of one performance,” Newsom said. “What kind of party does that?”

FOX News:  From the very first moment, Biden looked old, hard to understand, confused, saying scary things, and just throwing mud. Trump never took the bait from Biden’s insults.  Trump nailed it on tax cuts and growth. Trump also crushed it on Iran, Afghanistan, China, and vowed peace between Russia and Ukraine - something Biden has failed on.  Absolutely smashed Biden on that issue.  He killed it on inflation, absolutely killed it on the border catastrophe. That’s the winning message, that’s the unity voters want. Trump’s closing argument touched on key issue likes taxes, deregulation, and growth. He reacted forcefully and he’ll make America great again. That’s a home run. 

It was a train wreck for Biden.  If this was a boxing match the ref would have stopped it out of decency.  The call to Hillary has been made.....lol  A VERY well-connected Democratic source tells me - the house and Senate are the GOP’s for now - everyone is freaking out - he needs to go - but no way that they can replace him unless he agrees.  Let it go…...The dems will still say Biden won. I will be surprised if he doesn’t go to Disney land tomorrow. Trump is now in control, calm, strong.