US President Joe Biden said on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would consider dropping out of the race after a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, both have faced concerns about their age and fitness in the run-up to the November 5 election. Now, with less than five months before the US goes to the polls, some Democratic strategists and fundraisers are privately asking whether the president must be replaced.
“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” an ebullient Biden said at a rally one day after the head-to-head showdown with his Republican rival, which was widely viewed as a defeat for president. “I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he said, as the crowd chanted “four more years.”
Biden’s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses in the debate heightened voter concerns that he might 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 election.
For his part Trump put forward a series of falsehoods throughout the debate and deflected questions, further raising concerns about his own fitness for office, but much of the focus afterward was squarely on Biden, especially among Democrats.
But several of the party’s most senior figures, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Governor Gavin Newsom, said they were sticking with Biden. “Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know,” former Democratic president Barack Obama wrote on X.
The Biden campaign said it raised $14 million on Thursday and Friday and posted its single best hour of fundraising immediately after the Thursday night debate. The Trump campaign said it raised $8 million on the night of the debate.
At an afternoon rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, the former Republican president told supporters that he had a “big victory against a man looking to destroy our country,” adding: “Joe Biden’s problem is not his age… It’s his competence.”
Questions about Trump’s fitness for office have also arisen over his conviction last month in New York for covering up a hush money payment to a porn star, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his chaotic term in office.
Ahead of the debate, Biden confined himself to nearly a week of “debate camp” with top advisers at the Camp David presidential retreat in the mountains of western Maryland, an indication of how important his campaign considered Thursday night. It didn’t reflect on his performance, critics said.
In the debate, Biden paused as he was making a point about Medicare and tax reform and seemed to lose his train of thought. Trump jabbed Biden for being incoherent, saying at one point: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence.
Pausing, Biden said that tax reform would create money to help “strengthen our healthcare system, making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I was able to do with the, with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we had to do with.”
Throughout the 90-minute face-off, Biden struggled to counter a typically bombastic performance from Trump who seemed energised and forceful in comparison as he delivered—unchallenged—a reel of false or misleading statements about everything – from economy to immigration.
The verdict on Biden’s performance from party strategists and across the mainstream media was unanimous and damning, labelling the debate a “political disaster” and highlighting the “consternation” within the party ranks. “Democrats wake up to nightmare” ran the headline in Politico.
Maria Shriver, a former first lady of California and prominent member of the Democratic Kennedy dynasty, delivered what almost amounted to a eulogy on Biden’s re-election hopes. “I love Joe Biden. I know he’s a good man,” she posted on X.
Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged that her boss had a “slow start” against Trump, but insisted the Democrat had a “strong finish”. She told the debate host, CNN: “It was a slow start, that’s obvious to everyone. I’m not going to debate that point.”
Agencies
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