The odds-on Michelle Obama winning the 2024 election surged following President Joe Biden‘s widely criticized performance during his first presidential debate against Donald Trump, despite the former first lady having previously ruled out running and endorsed the incumbent.
Leading bookmakers Bet 365, Sky Bet, and William Hill were offering odds of 16/1 (5.9 percent), 16/1 (5.9 percent), and 20/1 (4.8 percent), respectively, immediately before the June 27 debate, according to data compiled by the Odds Checker website. As of 8 a.m. ET on Tuesday, these had changed to 12/1 (7.7 percent) for Bet 365, 14/1 (6.7 percent) for Sky Bet, and 10/1 (9.1 percent) for William Hill.
At several points during Thursday’s debate, Biden appeared to lose his train of thought, raising fresh concerns about the 81-year-old’s age and mental faculties. At one point when discussing immigration the president said: “And I’m going to continue to move it until we get the total ban on…the total initiative relative to what we’re going to do with more Border Patrol and more asylum officers.”
Former President Trump replied: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
Biden’s performance sparked a renewed debate among Democrats over whether he should remain the party’s presumptive 2024 presidential nominee, with CNN chief national correspondent John King claiming it had triggered “a very aggressive panic” within its ranks.
In a video posted on X, Johanna Maska, a former Barack Obama aide and Democratic consultant, commented: “We cannot do this Democrats. Joe Biden can’t put a sentence together. We have to change our candidate, and we have so many good candidates who are sitting on the sideline.
