Simply hours after a disastrous debate efficiency that led to instant calls to desert his reelection marketing campaign, President Joe Biden on Friday made clear that he had no intention of dropping out.
Biden held to a schedule that had been deliberate forward of time, delivering a high-energy speech at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, earlier than persevering with on to New York Metropolis for a Friday night time fundraiser, with three different fundraisers deliberate for Lengthy Island and New Jersey on Saturday.
One Biden marketing campaign official, talking on situation of anonymity, had a two-word reply to the calls that he step apart: “Completely not.”
Biden didn’t handle the difficulty straight at his rally, however referenced it after conceding that Thursday night time’s CNN debate with former President Donald Trump had not gone effectively.
“I do know, like hundreds of thousands of Individuals know, once you get knocked down, you get again up,” he mentioned to raucous cheers.
Certainly, Biden’s frequent stumbles within the 90-minute televised encounter additionally stood in sharp distinction to much more energetic remarks delivered at a marketing campaign watch celebration barely an hour later in Atlanta. Earlier than heading to the airport for the brief flight to North Carolina, Biden made a midnight go to to an space Waffle Home, the place he informed reporters, “It’s onerous to debate a liar.”
However that rationale didn’t clarify how, when confronted with the identical wall of lies from Trump at their first debate in 2020, Biden had managed to counter them with relative ease. Observers typically noticed him because the hands-down winner of that occasion.
It additionally didn’t clarify why Biden fumbled when requested concerning the Jan. 6, 2021, coup try on the debate Thursday night time, when he didn’t level out that the U.S. Capitol assault, instigated by Trump, included violent assaults on 140 law enforcement officials, with one dying hours later. As an alternative, Biden solely talked about the breaking of home windows and overturning of desks within the constructing, as if the vandalism had been the worst of it.
Biden did reference the assaults on the Capitol and Washington, D.C., law enforcement officials throughout his speech in Raleigh, as he has many dozens of instances earlier than.
“We noticed 1000’s at his path assault the Capitol. We noticed police being attacked. The Capitol being ransacked. The mob looking for Speaker Pelosi. Gallows actually arrange for Mike Pence,” Biden mentioned, describing Trump followers’ hunt for then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.
Towards the tip of his 20-minute speech, Biden acknowledged that this week’s debate efficiency wasn’t his finest.
“I do know I’m not a younger man, to state the apparent,” he mentioned. “I don’t stroll as simply as I used to. I don’t converse as easily as I used to. I don’t debate in addition to I used to. However I do know what I do know, I understand how to inform the reality. I do know proper from improper. I understand how to do that job. I understand how to get issues completed.”
In the meantime, former President Barack Obama, for whom Biden served as vice chairman for 2 phrases, shared a social media post that tacitly confirmed Biden could be staying within the race.
“Unhealthy debate nights occur. Belief me, I do know,” Obama wrote, referring to his personal poor efficiency at his first reelection debate in 2012 in opposition to GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
“However this election remains to be a alternative between somebody who has fought for odd people his complete life and somebody who solely cares about himself,” Obama wrote. “Between somebody who tells the reality; who is aware of proper from improper and can give it to the American folks straight — and somebody who lies by way of his enamel for his personal profit. Final night time didn’t change that, and it’s why a lot is at stake in November.”
