CNN Chief National Correspondent John King says prominent Democrats are set to ask the White House to force Biden to step down as a presidential candidate after his shocking debate performance last night.

Biden went into the debate knowing that he just had to not appear like a human cabbage and scrape through the night.

He failed miserably.

This prompted widespread alarm and panic amongst the establishment media and top Democrats, who are now set to push to have Biden replaced entirely.

According to CNN's John King, there will now be a mad last minute scramble to force Biden off the ticket.

King said there was "A deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party, it started minutes into the debate and it continues right now."

"It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, it involves fundraisers. And they're having conversations about the president's performance which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party in the ticket and they're having conversations about what they should do about it," he added.

"Some of those conversations include should we go to the White House and ask the president to step aside, other conversations are about should prominent Democrats go public with that call because they feel this debate was so terrible," said King.

Democrat political analyst Van Jones also suggested that Biden's awful night should mean he's replaced before the convention.

"He had a test tonight to restore the confidence of the country and of the base and he failed to do that," said Jones.