President Joe Biden said Friday that he intends to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in November’s presidential election, giving no indication he would consider dropping out of the race after a weak debate performance that disappointed his fellow Democrats.
“I know I’m not a young man, that’s obvious,” an energized Biden said at a rally a day after a head-to-head clash with his Republican rival that was widely seen as a setback for the 81-year-old president.
“I don’t walk as easily as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t argue as well as I used to,” he said, as the crowd chanted “four more years.”
“If I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul that I could do this job, I wouldn’t run for reelection. The stakes are too high,” Biden said.
Biden’s verbal fumbles and sometimes evasive answers in the debate raised voters’ concerns that he may not be fit to serve another four-year term and prompted some of his fellow Democrats to wonder whether they could replace him as their candidate for the November 5 US election.
Campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said there were no discussions about that possibility. “We prefer a bad night to a candidate who has a bad vision for the country,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.
The campaign held an “all-staff get-together” meeting Friday afternoon to reassure staffers that Biden is not dropping out of the race, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
Although Trump, 78, told numerous lies during the debate, the focus thereafter shifted entirely to Biden, especially among Democrats.
Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democratic Party in the US House of Representatives, avoided giving a direct answer when asked if he still had confidence in Biden’s candidacy.
He told reporters, “I support the ticket. I support the Democratic majority in the Senate. We’ll do everything we can to take back the House in November. Thank you all.”
Some other Democrats similarly expressed reservations about whether Biden should stay in the race. “That’s the president’s decision,” Democratic Senator Jack Reed told a local TV station in Rhode Island.
But many senior party leaders, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, said they were with Biden.
“There are bad debate nights. Believe me, I know. But this election is still a choice between a man who has fought for ordinary people his whole life and a man who only cares about himself,” former Democratic President Barack Obama wrote on X.
The New York Times editorial board, which had endorsed Biden in 2020, called on him to drop out of the race to give the Democratic Party a better chance of choosing another candidate to defeat Trump. “The greatest public service Mr. Biden can perform now is to announce that he will not seek re-election,” the editorial said.
The Biden campaign said it raised $14 million on Thursday and Friday and recorded its best hour of fundraising immediately after Thursday night’s debate. The Trump campaign said it raised $8 million on the night of the debate.
One potential bright spot for Biden: Early viewership data showed that only 48 million Americans watched the debate, far fewer than the 73 million who watched the candidates’ last face-off in 2020.
Biden, the oldest US president in history, faced only token opposition during the party’s months-long nomination process, and has secured enough support to ensure his place as the Democratic nominee.
Trump similarly triumphed over his internal party rivals earlier in the year, setting the stage for a long and bitter general election fight.
If Biden withdraws, the party will have less than two months to choose another nominee at its national convention that begins Aug. 19 — a potentially messy process that could pit Kamala Harris, the nation’s first Black woman vice president, against governors and other officeholders whose names have surfaced as potential replacements.
Trump targets Virginia
At an afternoon rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, Trump told supporters they had won a “great victory against a man who wanted to destroy our country.”
“The problem with Joe Biden is not his age. The problem is his qualifications,” Trump said.
Trump advisers said they believed the debate would boost his chances in Democratic-leaning states such as Virginia, which has not supported a Republican presidential candidate since 2004.
Earlier, some Trump supporters said they were surprised by Biden’s poor performance. “I’m afraid they’re going to drop him and put someone else up against him,” said Mike Boatman, who said he has attended more than 90 Trump rallies.
Fundraisers for Trump said they were getting enthusiastic calls from donors. “Anyone who raises money knows there’s a time when donors go to you, and this is one of those key moments,” said Ed McMullen, who served as ambassador to Switzerland during Trump’s presidency.
Trump’s eligibility has also been questioned by his conviction in New York last month for a cover-up of a payoff to a porn star, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his chaotic term in office.
He is due to be sentenced on July 11, just days before his party is due to call for him to be formally censured. He still faces three other criminal charges, though none of these are likely to go to trial before November.
Biden’s shaky performance in the debate on Friday sparked shocked reactions globally, leading to public calls for him to step down and possibly leaving some of America’s closest allies hoping for a Trump comeback.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)