CNN anchor and broadcast journalist Chris Wallace pulled no punches Thursday night, calling President Joe Biden's debate performance a "car accident in slow motion."
To many Democrats and never-Trumpers on the internet, the statement was hardly hyperbolic. But an already stunned panel nearly fell out of the chairs when they saw a Biden boasting at the after-party, "We're going to beat this guy," as the crowd cheered, "we need you!"
The celebration represented a stark contrast from sentiment felt online, in group chats and on every major news channel, as the world watched what some suggested was the demise of the Biden campaign.
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"He needed to change the narrative and he did change the narrative," said Wallace as Jill Biden fist-pumped to the crowd. "He sunk his campaign tonight."
Fellow anchor and CNN host Kaitlan Collins, talking over the befuddling Biden celebration in the so-called "spin room," said Democrats faced an "immense challenge" in spinning the result.
Later, fellow host Erin Burnett asked what most of America wanted to know as Biden appeared to boast to the crowd of supporters.
"In this moment, he's at a watch party, they're cheering, 'four more years!' He's speaking," she said. What I'm curious about, is does he know how bad this was? At this moment. He walked out to his aides — does he know?"
A visibly flustered Wallace replied, "If he doesn't know, that's more alarming than anything."
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The panel watched as a newly energized Biden told the crowd, "I want to go home with you!"
Collins called out Biden's new-found well of energy.
"He wasn't a third that vibrant or vigorous inside the debate," she said.
Another CNN anchor said that while Americans saw a familiar Donald Trump — "his mannerisms, his quickness in his response" not to mention his "lies" and "incorrect" information — they saw a Joe Biden they "don't recognize."
"This is not the person who was quick on his feet, or fast to parry, or to respond quickly to misinformation," she said.
A cross-armed Wallace echoed her statement: "He hasn't been that Joe Biden in a long time. This was the culmination of a process."
"Perhaps, but it also was stark," she said, noting Biden failed to "mitigate the idea he was infirm."