.@jbouie: "I’ll be the fly in the ointment of this emerging consensus that Biden should drop out. I don’t think one has to excuse or apologize for the president’s poor debate performance to also observe that the hyperventilating panic obscures the extent to which there are serious, perhaps fatal downsides to Biden leaving the race at this stage."

Bouie: "But why, exactly, should Harris step aside? Why should Harris not be considered the presumptive nominee on account of her service as vice president and her presence on the 2020 ticket? And should Harris be muscled out, how does this affect a new nominee’s relationship with key parts of the Democratic base, specifically those Black voters for whom Harris’s presence on the ticket was an affirmation of Biden’s political commitment to their communities?"