‘Defcon 1 Moment’: Obama Campaign Manager Says Trump and Biden Looked ’30 Years Apart’

Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Joe Biden’s debate performance was a “Defcon 1 moment” and that he looked “30 years apart” in age from Donald Trump.

Biden was criticized by Republican and Democrats for his low tone and his difficulty answering questions during the CNN debate on Thursday evening. Some media pundits, including on the left, have even floated the idea of potentially replacing Biden with another candidate before the DNC convention.

Plouffe joined MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for an interview after the debate had conclude to share his thoughts on how Biden’s performance will affect voters. The political analyst noted that “it really pains” him to see that Biden appeared “30 years apart” in age from Trump.

MADDOW: David, I know you have been talking to some muckety mucks in Democratic politics, including what we generally call the donor class. What was your personal David Plouffe take on what you saw tonight? And what are you hearing from the people you’ve been speaking with?

PLOUFFE: Well, I think consistent with your reaction, Rachel and others on the panel, it’s kind of a Defcon 1 moment. I do think Lawrence and Chris give a very important caveat. Listen, I’ve been deeply involved in presidential campaign debates. Some went well, some didn’t go well. The only thing that matters, and you won’t really know for 3 or 4 days, is how the voters that will decide this election will react. I would also add, I have deep suspicion that Donald Trump with swing voters bombed as well. And that’s the tragedy, because I think Joe Biden, the biggest thing in this election is voters concerns. And it’s both swing voters and base voters with his age.

And those are compounded tonight. So what the campaign’s going to do is try and run ads. Biden will go out tomorrow and the next day be aggressive. I mean, it wasn’t just his craziness and his lies, although that was apparent in every question. Like, Donald Trump wouldn’t even answer questions about child care or the opioid crisis. You know, talk about someone who’s considered self, which is what the message the Biden campaign wanted to land. But the concern level is quite high. This is a race that it reminds me a little bit of 2012, but in reverse.

We had a small, significantly important lead in battleground states. We had a really bad first debate race tightening, but we’re okay. Biden is behind narrowly right now. He’s the one that has to change the equation here. And the biggest barrier that’s keeping his ceiling too low is concerns about age. And I think that’s a tragedy because I think Trump had so many openings that you could have just scissored him up on tonight. And Biden did have a couple of big moments, but I think at the end of the day, the overwhelming reaction again, it doesn’t matter, quite frankly, what people like us say, it’s what voters say. And if they were already concerned about his effort, and the way I think about it is, sadly, it’s really pains me to say this. They’re three years apart. They seemed about 30 years apart tonight. And I think that’s going to be the thing that, voters really wrestle with coming out of this.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.