PBS Alcindor: Sources near Sanders said path became impossible when Biden didn't implode in debate

[Tom Rinaldo]

29. If you are correct it could only buy them a week of time

and they had to know that also. The high profile live debate was going to be the defining moment in that regard. Either that would refute rumors being spread, which was always by far the most likely outcome, or conversely it theoretically could have supported them, which was as I said always a very remote possibility. But any rumor phase at most had a natural shelf life of about a week before it would be superseded by actual evidence either way.

It is conceivable that buying one week or so of time could have mattered to the Sanders campaign because they needed to maintain a high degree of public interest in the primary process heading into the primaries that were soon to be held. As has been reported, the only path forward for Sanders was dependent on Biden possibly collapsing. As long as that was still theoretically possible it was possible to motivate volunteers to work hard getting the vote out for Bernie in the immediately upcoming contests. Ultimately it was a self cancelling fallacy once the debate showed Biden to be agile and adept. And now there is no path forward. I would be greatly upset with any Sanders surrogates who raised any semblance of doubt about Biden's mental capacity henceforth, after their debate.