President Biden came out swinging hard Friday in an effort to quiet widespread concern over his poor debate performance the night before — and even calls for him to drop out of the race against former President Donald Trump.
Speaking to a raucous crowd of supporters in Raleigh, N.C., the 81-year-old incumbent looked rested and aggressive as he insisted he’s not going anywhere, even after struggling badly in the pivotal debate.
“I know I’m not a young man [but] I know how to tell the truth,” Biden said. “I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job.
“When you get knocked down, you get back up,” Biden added to roars of applause and chants of “four more years.”
Showing off the energy and vigor he was sorely lacking on the debate stage, Biden roasted Trump for his string of criminal trials and especially his effort to downplay his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“Donald Trump isn’t just a convicted felon. He’s a one-man crime wave,” Biden said.
The speech came as Democrats openly panicked over his debate performance, with allies wondering out loud whether he should remain the party’s nominee in the November election.
From lawmakers to members of the pundit class, calls for Dems to consider an alternative candidate began right after Thursday night’s debate in Atlanta ended.
“I’m not the only one whose heart is breaking right now. There’s a lot of people who watched this tonight and felt terribly for Joe Biden,” former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill said on MSNBC. “I don’t know if things can be done to fix this.”
A member of the Democratic National Committee from Florida was more blunt, according to The New York Times.
“The debate has made it painfully clear that Biden cannot win in November,” Nadia Ahmad was quoted as saying in an email. “The longer the Democrats cling to this failing strategy, the closer they get to handing the White House back to Trump. For the sake of the party and the nation, Biden must step aside.”
Biden advisers have sharply rejected such statements and insist that the president will bounce back stronger after what they called a bad night at the office.
The incumbent still plans to participate in the second scheduled presidential debate in September, an adviser told CNN on Friday.
Leading Democratic lawmakers also rejected calls for Biden to step aside, suggesting he still has a chance to turn a new page.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York simply replied “no” when asked whether Biden should drop out.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the former House majority leader, echoed the sentiment.
“From a performance standpoint, it wasn’t great, but from a values standpoint, it far outshone the other guy,” she was quoted as saying by The Times.
“We should stay the course,” said Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), whose endorsement helped save Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) urged Democrats to keep their powder dry. He channeled his own remarkable comeback from a poor debate performance in his successful 2022 Senate race.
“I refuse to join the Democratic vultures on Biden’s shoulder,” Fetterman tweeted. “Chill the f— out.”
Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee after sweeping the party’s primaries in a string of 90%-plus walkovers over token opposition.
The only realistic way Biden could be replaced at the top of the ticket would be if he himself decided to step aside, observers noted. That could lead to a move to make Vice President Kamala Harris his replacement, but could also turn into an ugly political food fight between party factions at the Democratic National Convention in early August.
On Thursday night, Biden looked and sounded frail, losing his train of thought during several key moments. He also failed to take advantage of Trump’s glaring missteps like when the former president downplayed his role in the Jan. 6 attack.
Early polls showed Trump soundly defeating Biden in the debate, despite the presumptive GOP nominee’s torrent of lies.
Some analysts noted that several incumbents have flopped in the first debates of their reelection campaigns, including former President Barack Obama.
But Biden’s age raises questions about whether he can bounce back. Even before the debate, voters have told pollsters that he’s too old to run the country for four more years.
“I think he lost the confidence of a lot of rank-and-file citizens,” Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, told CNN. “It was disturbing.”
For her part, Harris passionately defended Biden but conceded he had a “slow start.”
“That’s obvious to everyone. I’m not going to debate that point,” she told CNN after the debate.
“I’m talking about the choice in November. I’m talking about one of the most important elections in our collective lifetime.”
With News Wire Services
