Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said that Democrats should be panicked about President Joe Biden’s debate performance on Thursday night, calling it a “Defcon 1 moment” — meaning the party needed to be at its maximum state of readiness to make a change.

Plouffe made the remarks during an MSNBC interview with far-left host Rachel Maddow when he was asked for his personal take and what he was hearing from top Democrats.

“Well, I think consistent with your reaction, Rachel and others on the panel, it’s kind of a Defcon 1 moment,” he said. “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 three or four days, is how the voters that will decide this election will react.”

He said that voters’ concerns about Biden’s age and fitness for office were “compounded tonight” by his poor performance.

“So what the campaign’s going to do is try and run ads,” he said. “Biden will go out tomorrow and the next day be aggressive. … 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,” he said. “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,” he claimed without providing examples, “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:

David Plouffe, former senior advisor to Barack Obama, on Joe Biden’s debate performance: It was a “DEFCON 1 moment”pic.twitter.com/4xUt3PJLHM

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 28, 2024

Tractor Supply, a rural retailer known for selling farming equipment, announced on social media this week that it was reversing course on woke initiatives after facing backlash from conservative activists online.

The company faced potentially having to deal with the same fallout of other major corporations that embraced wokeness, including Anheuser-Busch and Target.

“Every day our 50,000 Team Members take care of our customers like family,” the company said in a statement. “We deeply value our relationship with our customers and the communities we call home.”

The company said it had invested millions of dollars in conservative causes, including “veteran causes, emergency response, animal shelters, state fairs, rodeos and farmers markets.”

“We have also invested in the future of rural America,” the company said. “We are the largest supporter of FFA and have longstanding relationships with 4-H and other educational organizations.”

The company said that it heard from customers after activists online — including Robby Starbuck, who organized the campaign — brought to their attention actions that the company took that they were disappointed in.

“Going forward, we will ensure our activities and giving tie directly to our business,” the company said.

The company listed the following examples of actions that it would take to remedy the situation:

No longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign Refocus our Team Member Engagement Groups on mentoring, networking and supporting the business Further focus on rural America priorities including ag education, animal welfare, veteran causes and being a good neighbor and stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns Eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment Withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts

The company said it would continue listening to its customer base and work to earn their trust.

The statement was well received on the political Right, including by Andrew Surabian, a top adviser to Donald Trump Jr.

“This is a huge win and proof that major brands are recognizing that going woke is bad for business — a big change from 5 years ago,” he posted on X. “Credit to Tractor Supply for changing course and doing the right thing.”

Conservative activist Christopher Rufo posted: “Well done. Thank you, Tractor Supply. I will be doing more business with you in the future.”

Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, posted on X: “Cutting off the @HRC , supporting causes that make a difference, eliminating DEI, focusing on conservation. Very based.”

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) also weighed in: “. @TractorSupply deserves a lot of credit for recognizing the need for major course correction. I hope other companies will follow their lead and totally abandon all the woke garbage that has rotted corporate America.”