Even in the Biden-favorite parts of Los Angeles County, the president is facing complaints after a resounding performance in last week’s debate.
“Biden needs to sit down, take his medicine and take a nap. His time is up,” said Daisy Williams. She voted for Biden in 2020 but said after watching last week’s debate that she would not run in the November election. “I’ve never seen anything so crazy in my life. We’re in trouble… That debate was a joke.
Biden’s debate performance — in which he delivered meandering, sometimes incoherent thoughts in a weak, gravelly voice — unsettled even the most ardent Democrats. Even as the party shudders and its leaders rush to debate whether to replace the incumbent among the candidates, voters in the deepest blue districts of Los Angeles County are also pondering Biden’s future.
California — especially Los Angeles County, which carried Biden at 71% in 2020 — has overwhelming support for the president. But some precincts in Inglewood and South Central Los Angeles are even bluer, delivering more than 94% support for the president in the 2020 election.
In a series of informal interviews, some residents of these areas said they would support the president, while others said he should let someone else succeed former President Trump in November, perhaps Vice President Kamala Harris. .
In the West Athens community south of Inglewood, a district that carried 95% support for Biden in 2020, Williams expressed disappointment with her presidential choice. She said she would reconsider her decision not to vote if Biden stepped down.
The 65-year-old certified nursing assistant called the election a choice between “criminals and people with dementia.”
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre says Biden does not have any form of dementia at a press conference Tuesday.
Biden has not publicly wavered on his re-election commitment, although he has reportedly been discussing resigning with his closest family members and advisers.
A CNN poll released on Tuesday showed that 56% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning registered voters believe their party would have a better chance of winning the election with a candidate other than Biden. The first poll released since the debate showed Trump beating Biden.
(Faith Pinho/Los Angeles Times)
But Daniel Rodriguez, a Democrat who voted for Biden in 2020 and plans to vote again in November, was not concerned by Biden’s erratic debate performance.
“I definitely saw that, but I just think he had a lot of things going on,” Rodriguez said. “He was overwhelmed.”
As a caregiver for people aged 50 to 90, Rodriguez, 50, said his job is to advocate for the elderly and “support them 100 percent.” Rodriguez said his work has shown him that some older adults are still mentally sharp, even if they can’t always express themselves well.
“I see people who are really sane — they’re still hanging on, they’re still smart,” he said. “so [do] Don’t give up on them, you know? … They have a voice in this country.
Janice Gatlin, 66, had the opposite reaction to the debate. She said she kept trying to turn away from the TV screen and Biden’s monumental defeat but couldn’t stop watching and watched the entire “disturbing” performance.
“Biden, he’s reaching the age where he should retire. Because he’s lost! I’m embarrassed for him. It hurts me because I voted for him,” she said. Harris would be a good replacement, she added. “It’s time for her to step up,” Gatlin said.
Biden made several public appearances after the debate, including a vivid speech at a rally in North Carolina the next day. Critics say he appears more energetic because he relies on a teleprompter. But to Gatlin, that didn’t matter — she said the president’s debate performance showed he was no longer fit to be president.
“He needs to step down and think about the country,” Gatlin said, adding that other countries were watching the U.S. election. “No one was afraid of him. He didn’t even speak loudly – there was no bass in his voice, nothing.
(Faith Pinho/Los Angeles Times)
Antinya Walker, 19, said she will be voting in her first presidential election this fall, and the debate made her choice simple: She voted for Trump.
The Los Angeles resident, who was running errands at a local big box store, said she believed Biden was against women’s rights. She accuses him of tightening abortion restrictions across the country — even as Trump has been praised for appointing conservative Supreme Court justices who led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, eliminating abortion access nationwide.
Abortion is widely considered an electoral winner for Democrats. But on Thursday, Biden struggled to articulate a clear vision for restoring abortion care in the country, instead casting a confusing metaphor for the third trimester of pregnancy and botching a key Democratic issue. Walker said she stopped watching the debate after hearing Biden’s “horrible” response to the issue.
“How can we trust a president who can’t even communicate properly?” Walker said. “I think Trump is our best choice right now. I pray for America.
(Faith Pinho/Los Angeles Times)
Still, Biden retains supporters in Los Angeles County, the bluest of districts, such as Harvey Woodruff, a retired grocer and security guard.
“He looks a little tired. This guy is already working, what do you expect?” Woodruff said. He said he appreciated Biden’s stewardship of the economy over the past four years. “Two thumbs up, good job.” I see no reason why we can’t give him another term.
Woodruff said Trump posed a greater threat to the country’s democracy, adding that he expected Trump to pardon his criminal convictions if he were elected president.
The 67-year-old was riding his bike from the Inglewood neighborhood, where 95% of the vote went to Biden in 2020, to Darby Park to meet a friend at the beach. After seeing Biden’s difficulties in the debate, Woodruff said he was reminded to see a doctor.
