An exclusive poll for DailyMail.com found that a clear majority of independent voters believe President Joe Biden should no longer be the Democratic nominee after a car-crash debate with Donald Trump.

Some 62 percent said he should be dumped from the ticket.

Biden looked all of his 81 years on Thursday night as he repeatedly lost his train of thought and meandered into silence.

Democrats are known for bed-wetting ahead of elections, but the panic mode has shot to another level following President Biden’s cringey debate performance in Atlanta.

The president’s flubbed answer and pause just minutes into the debate drew an audible gasp from some watching and set off a flurry of frantic text messages of alarm.

Some even took to social media to voice their concerns publicly.

‘Obviously that debate was a f***ing disaster. We have to beat Donald Trump. We have to have a nominee who can do that,’ wrote former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau on X.

‘It’s kind of a DEFCON 1 moment,’ Obama 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe said on MSNBC following the debate. He went on that what really matters is how the voters react.

Politico reported some Biden aides found the peformance so concerning, they spent the night updating their LinkedIns.

The House’s top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., gave a curt ‘no’ when asked by reporters whether Biden should step aside from the top of the ticket after his debate performance last night.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., meanwhile, claimed that Democrats on Capitol Hill are ‘in full five-alarm fire.’

‘They’re deeply concerned. They are saying the quiet parts out loud.’

The Biden campaign suffered devastating TV commentary in the minutes after the end of the presidential debate Thurdsay night, and the hits kept coming Friday morning as Americans woke up to digest the news.

‘A lot of people needed a drink after last night,’ said CBS This Morning host Gayle King at the top of her broadcast.

‘He had one job to do last night, Bob. Just one, really,’ she told correspondent Robert Costa in obvious frustration, as he reported there was not an organized Democratic push to get Biden to relinquish the nomination despite his halting performance.

Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

President Biden and Donald Trump hit the campaign trail to rally supporters one day after their face-to-face on the debate stage in Atlanta.

Biden headed to Raleigh, North Carolina late Thursday night for a campaign rally Friday afternoon. He is joined there by First Lady Jill Biden.

The Biden campaign sees North Carolina as a battleground state they could possibly flip blue come November.

Trump is set to deliver remarks on Friday afternoon in Chesapeake, VA near Virginia Beach.

He lost Virginia to Democrats in both 2016 and 2020, but the state elected a Republican governor in 2021. Trump’s team sees the state in play in November.

The ex-president will be joined at his event by GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin.

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor in Atlanta

Pennsylvania’s telegenic Gov. Josh Shapiro took to the airwaves hours after Joe Biden’s debate flop to tell members of his party to ‘stop worrying’ and rally behind the presumtive nominee.

Shapiro, 51, appeared as a Biden campaign surrogate after key Democratic operatives hit the panic button after the president’s halting performance and influential columnist Tom Friedman called for Biden’s performance ‘heartbreaking’ and said he had ‘no business running for reelection.’

‘I would say to all those folks that are out there worrying right now? Start working and stop worrying,’ he told CNN. He acknowledged Biden had a ‘bad night’ and said the campaign needed a ‘crisper message.’

‘It ain’t easy debating a pathological liar,’ he said. Then he blamed the debate hosts, after Biden stumbled and lost his train of thought in many of his answers, staring downward at times while Trump blasted his record, and according to fact checkers made multiple false statements. ‘I think CNN could have done a better job of calling those lies out,’ he said.

New York Democrat Rep. Ritchie Torres was unimpressed with either candidate’s performance last night.

The first presidential debate showdown of 2024 was full of extraordinary moments.

From the start, President Biden’s advanced age was on full display after he froze mid-sentence just 12 minutes in. He also repeatedly cleared his throat due to a cold.

That was just the beginning of his blunders and mumblings throughout the debate that has sent Democrats into full-blown panic mode, leading some to say Biden should be replaced on the top of the 2024 ticket.

Democratic and Republican political experts almost all agreed on who clearly ended up on top at the end of the night. DailyMail.com breaks down analysis from top political minds: