I oversee the WSJ’s Washington bureau. Ask me anything about last night’s debate, where things stand with the 2024 election and what could happen next.

[u/wsj]

President Biden’s halting performance during last night’s debate with Donald Trump left the Democratic Party in turmoil. You can watch my video report on the debate and read our coverage on how party officials are now trying to sort through the president’s prospects. 

We want to hear from you. What questions do you have coming out of the debate? 

What questions do you have about the election in general? 

I’m Damian Paletta, The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Coverage Chief, overseeing our political reporting. Ask me anything.

All stories linked here are free to read.

proof: https://imgur.com/a/hBBD6vt

Edit, 3:00pm ET: I'm wrapping up now, but wanted to say a big thanks to everyone for jumping in and asking so many great questions. Sorry I couldn't answer them all! We'll continue to write about the fallout from the debate as well as all other aspects of this unprecedented election, and I hope you'll keep up with our reporting. Thanks, again.

[u/Fabulous_Sherbet_431]

Thank you for doing this!

In your opinion, how serious has the conversation been around a transition to another candidate? There’s a lot of speculation from the outside, but that doesn’t mean much.

If it did come to that, would you see a Kamala Harris run? Or another center-left candidate like Whitmer or Shapiro?

Do you think there’s any evidence to the kind of wacky conspiracy that this concern has been brewing for a while, and because the debate was Biden’s team’s idea, that it was insiders forcing the issue as early as possible?

You might not be able to answer this, but I feel like his cognitive decline has been there for everyone to see over the last few years, but there’s been a collective denial of it in order not to cede ground to the other party. I was wondering what your thoughts were on this.

Thanks again!

Signed, a concerned center left Democrat who has been really impressed with the Biden administration and incredibly concerned about Biden himself.

[u/wsj → u/Fabulous_Sherbet_431]

I won't express an opinion here, because I honestly don't know. I do believe that anything is possible. They do still have time to make a change, if that's what they decide they must do. But the decision really has to be Biden's.

Re his acuity, I'll share our story from a few weeks ago:

edit for free link: Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping

[u/nzernozer → u/wsj]

That article doesn't seem credible to me. It states very directly that almost all the people reporting signs of Biden "slipping" are Republicans, and the specific reasoning they give is incredibly vague. The few times the article describes actual events it's mundane things like mixing up a name.

[u/ambient_whooshing → u/nzernozer]

... It's WSJ. You didn't expect right spin?

[u/nzernozer → u/ambient_whooshing]

I admittedly don't really read WSJ. I guess now I'm reminded of why.

[u/gopoohgo → u/wsj]

Follow up: do you feel any vindication after the vitriol your paper received after that story?

[u/ChronoLink99 → u/gopoohgo]

He won't express an opinion here.

[u/Mindless-Ad-9803 → u/gopoohgo]

I too would like to hear your position on the pushback. And if your paper has more responsibility to truth or profit.

[u/Message_10 → u/Fabulous_Sherbet_431]

Why are you thanking him? He's from the Wall Street Journal. They're not rooting for Democrats--they're rooting against them. All this bullshit about replacing Biden weakens Biden's chances, and whoever is typing these answers knows that. This entire conversation is bad faith nonsense, and I'm surprised so many people on r/politics are falling for it.

[u/Fabulous_Sherbet_431 → u/Message_10]

You're being way too conspiratorial about this. The WSJ is just a bunch of accomplished reporters, and they aren't singularly rooting for anyone, if anything they probably skew center-left, freer-market but liberal social policies.

The reason we're in this mess is because people have been scared to call out the obvious because they think it is ceding group to the Republicans. I'm voting Democrat for policies, but I'm also not going to performatively toe the party line.

[u/Message_10 → u/Fabulous_Sherbet_431]

Nope. OP knows as well as anybody that the chances of Biden being replaced zero-point-zero. This is bad faith reporting.