US President Joe Biden forcefully tried on Friday to quell Democratic anxieties over his unsteady showing in his debate with former president Donald Trump, as elected members of his party closed ranks around him in an effort to shut down talk of replacing him.
Mr Biden’s halting delivery and meandering comments, particularly early in Thursday evening’s debate, fuelled concerns from even members of his own party that at the age of 81 he is capable of leading the country for another four years.
Even before the debate, Mr Biden’s age had been a liability with voters, and Thursday’s debate appeared to reinforce the public’s deep-seated concerns before perhaps the largest audience he will garner before ballots are cast.
Mr Biden appeared to acknowledge the criticism during a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, saying: “I don’t debate as well as I used to.”
But he added: “I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”
Speaking for 18 minutes, Mr Biden repeatedly appeared far more animated than his showing the night before, and he excoriated Mr Trump for his “lies” and campaign aimed at “revenge and retribution”.
“The choice in this election is simple,” Mr Biden said. “Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it.”
Democratic politicians on Friday acknowledged Mr Biden’s poor showing, but tried to stop talk of replacing him as their standard-bearer, and instead tried to shift the focus onto Mr Trump’s attacks and falsehoods that they hoped would remind voters of the daily turbulence of his presidency.
“Well, the president didn’t have a good night, but neither did Donald Trump with lie after lie and his dark vision for America,” North Carolina governor Roy Cooper told The Associated Press on Friday, hours before he introduced the president in Raleigh.
“We cannot send Donald Trump back to the White House. He’s an existential threat to our nation.”
Former president Barack Obama backed up his former vice president, posting on X that “Bad debate nights happen”.
Alluding to his own poor showing in the first debate of his reelection campaign in 2012, Mr Obama continued: “Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
He added: “Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”
Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 28, 2024
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries answered with a flat “no” when asked Friday if Mr Biden should step aside. But the New York politician added that he is eager to see how Mr Biden would address his performance at his Friday rally.
“I’m looking forward to hearing from President Biden,” he said. “And until he articulates a way forward in terms of his vision for America at this moment, I’m going to reserve comment about anything relative to where we are at this moment, other than to say I stand behind the ticket.”
Democrat representative Ritchie Torres said: “Since (the) performance last night, I had to take a few more antidepressants than usual.
“People have asked me, ‘Do I feel comfortable with the debate?’. You know, a Donald Trump presidency would cause me far greater discomfort than a Joe Biden debate performance.”
Mr Biden’s campaign billed the Raleigh event as the largest-yet rally of his re-election bid in the state Mr Trump carried by the narrowest margin in 2020. He will then travel to New York for a weekend of fundraisers that his campaign now needs more than ever, as it looks to stave off Mr Trump.
Mr Biden’s campaign announced that it raised 14 million dollars (£11 million) on debate day and the morning after, while Mr Trump’s campaign said it raised more than eight million dollars (£6.3 million) from the start of the debate through to the end of the night.
Vice President Kamala Harris, whom the Biden campaign sent out to defend his performance, was set to travel to Las Vegas, Nevada. She told CNN hours after the debate: “There was a slow start, but it was a strong finish.”
Democrat representative Emanuel Cleaver said he could hardly sleep because of the number of telephone calls he got after Mr Biden performed “horribly” in the debate.
“People were just concerned. And I told everybody being concerned is healthy, overreacting is dangerous,” Mr said. “And I think I wouldn’t advise anybody to make rash decisions right now.”
James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who was formerly a longtime fixture in House Democratic leadership, said he would likely speak to Mr Biden later on and his message would be simple: “Stay the course.”
Mr Biden and his allies were looking to brush aside concerns about his delivery to keep the focus on the choice for voters this November.
They seized on Mr Trump’s equivocations on whether he would accept the will of voters this time around, his refusal to condemn the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 2021, trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Mr Biden, and his embrace of the conservative-leaning Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade that had legalised abortion nationwide.
Mr Trump’s comments, Mr Biden’s team insisted, are out of step with the majority of voters and will serve as fodder for the barrage of ads that they will see through to Election Day.
But Democrats criticised Mr Biden for fumbling his chance to press Mr Trump on those issues.
Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who was the chairman of the House January 6 committee, said that while everything Mr Trump said about the attack that day was wrong, Mr Biden missed the moment.
“The President missed a golden opportunity, to correct the record, in the debate. That was a missed opportunity.”
Mr Biden also fumbled on abortion rights, one of the most important issues for Democrats in this year’s election. He was unable to explain Roe v Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalised abortion nationwide. A conservative Supreme Court with three justices nominated by Mr Trump overturned Roe two years ago.
As elected Democrats united behind Mr Biden publicly, donors and party operatives shared panicked text messages and phone calls on Thursday night and into Friday expressing their concern that Mr Biden’s performance was so bad that he may be unelectable this autumn.
But there were no immediate signs of organised efforts among donors, his campaign leadership or the Democratic National Committee to convince the president to step aside, according to interviews with several people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive conversations.
Still, morale was poor among some Biden campaign staffers across the country, who had been encouraged by top campaign officials in Delaware to organise hundreds of debate watch parties to get as many eyes as possible on the Biden-Trump showdown. The morning after, some lower-level campaign staffers privately expressed their desire for Mr Biden to quit the race.
It was the same among some top Democratic donors, who talked up the need to embrace a Biden replacement during a series of text messages.
There were informal conversations between donors and those close to potential Biden alternatives to gauge their willingness to step into the race. But there was no sense that a sitting governor or member of Congress would be willing to risk the political fallout that might come with a public break from the Democratic president.
Others donors skittish about Mr Biden’s performance faced determined outreach from his campaign warning that without their resources they risked handing the election to Mr Trump.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat frequently mentioned as a 2028 contender and speculated about as a potential replacement for Mr Biden on the ticket should he step aside, released a statement backing him on Friday.
“The difference between Joe Biden’s vision for making sure everyone in America has a fair shot and Donald Trump’s dangerous, self-serving plans will only get sharper as we head toward November,” she said.
California governor Gavin Newsom also dismissed questions on whether he would consider stepping in for Mr Biden, telling reporters after the debate: “I will never turn my back on him.”
Under current Democratic Party rules, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace Mr Biden as the party’s nominee without his co-operation or without party officials being willing to rewrite the rules at the August national convention.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, flew to his golf club in Virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward Democrats in recent years but that his aides believe can flip toward the Republican in November. He was set to hold at rally in Chesapeake on Friday afternoon.
Earlier on Friday, Mr Biden addressed the grand opening of a visitor centre at the Stonewall National Monument in New York. He was later due to headline an evening Pride Month fundraiser with LGBT+ advocates.
