Former Republicans were ready to back Biden to beat Trump. And then came the debate.

Denver
CNN
—

A few weeks ago, a conversation and conviviality developed among a group of strangers brought together in a Denver bar by their shared antipathy toward former President Donald Trump.

Many of them were Republicans or former Republicans who were finally able to speak openly about their political views and how they wanted to prevent Trump from returning to the White House in what is shaping up to be a close election this fall.

Becky Hofer said it’s “hard to find community” in her “very red” home state of South Dakota. She once considered herself a Republican, but said the party has transformed over the past decade. “It’s hard for me to wake up every morning and talk to my neighbors and know that they’re supporting someone who doesn’t align with any of their values,” she said. “They’re giving up all of their values ​​to support someone for what? Tax cuts that we’re really not going to get?”

Hofer and hundreds of others at the event hosted by The Bulwark, a media organization founded by former Republican operatives and conservative writers who oppose Trump, spoke about their political journeys and how many of them were willing to cross party lines and support President Joe Biden.

Paul Ivancie of Denver told CNN: “I used to be a Republican. I don’t have a party affiliation anymore, but I’m pretty inclined, I think, to vote for the only alternative, which is Biden or the Democratic side.”

But then came the debate.

Biden’s disappointing performance and Trump’s persistent false statements at the CNN event have raised new concerns among these voters, who already consider themselves “politically homeless.”

“I’m very concerned about Joe Biden,” Hofer said. She had a visceral reaction to his appearance, as it reminded her of the early years when her mother was diagnosed with dementia. She went through her mother’s belongings and found little slips of paper with important phone numbers and addresses hidden in her wallet, briefcase drawer and clothes, as her mother hid from her that she was losing her memory. “Joe Biden needs to be replaced because, in my opinion, this is nothing but elder abuse,” she said.

“I think the fact that we as a country are sitting here watching people roll our old politicians over the edge like it’s ‘Bernie’s Weekend’ is disgusting. (…) He needs to be replaced, if only out of respect for his humanity.”

Robin Hawkland enjoyed being with her Bulwark colleagues. “You feel safe here and you feel like you can express your opinion,” she told CNN. “People may not agree, but you can talk about it rationally.”

Any positive political sentiment was swept away by the debate, which shocked her husband and herself, she said. “The next day, we started to feel a certain anger when we watched the news. We wondered if they were hiding something from us about Biden.”

She continued: “Everybody sees it. Everybody I’ve talked to. Everybody cares. Especially those who don’t want Trump elected.”

Hawkland, a health care worker, said she once “fled” her home in Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district in northern Georgia after the congresswoman was “pretty abusive to people wearing masks during COVID.” She and her husband, who voted for Trump in 2016, now live in a “blue bubble” neighborhood in Salt Lake City, in the red state of Utah. She said they both registered as Democrats when they got their new Utah driver’s licenses.

But once again, their world was turned upside down.

“You have all these people who were Republicans, they ask, ‘What? Why? I’m just in the same predicament in this party.’

Yet those voters did not feel any warmer feelings toward Trump after the debate, and may have been more concerned about a possible second term after the Supreme Court ruled that a former president enjoys “certain immunity from criminal prosecution” for official acts.

“Donald Trump hasn’t answered a single question. The Supreme Court decision … makes me sick,” Hofer said at his home in South Dakota.

“I think it’s essential that Donald Trump does not win.”

Tim Miller, a former spokesman for Jeb Bush and an expert on opposition studies who now hosts the “Bulwark Podcast,” echoed that sentiment. After taping an episode in front of a live audience, he told CNN that he thought the Biden campaign should court voters who feel they no longer have a place in the Republican Party: “They’re going to need our people.”

That mission became more difficult after Biden’s debate performance, he said. “He should resign unless he can dramatically improve his performance and demonstrate that he is up to the task.”

Sarah Longwell, a former Republican strategist and editor of The Bulwark, added: “The stakes are too high not to consider all available options.”

The Never Trump and Never Again Trump supporters who met in Denver still have the same goal: Anyone but Trump in the White House. But now they are waiting to see whether they will have to vote for Biden or someone else.

“Stopping Trump is the number one issue, with or without Biden,” Ivancie said. “There are certainly capable people in his shoes, if he decides not to run, and I think they could be a powerful contrast to Trump.”

Hawkland said the debate over the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity was like “all the dominoes falling one after the other.”

“It’s hard not to feel hopeless,” she added. “I feel like we’re in some kind of weird whirlwind that we can’t get out of.”