President Joe Biden said on Friday, June 28, he would 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 fellow Democrats.
“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” an ebullient Biden said at a rally a day after the head-to-head showdown with his rival, which was widely viewed as a defeat for the 81-year old president as the crowd chanted: “four more years.”
“I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to. I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul that I could do this job. The stakes are too high.” Biden’s verbal stumbles and meandering responses in the debate heightened 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 November 5 election.
“We’d rather have one bad night than a candidate with a bad vision for where he wants to take the country,” he told journalists aboard Air Force One.
The campaign held an “all hands on deck” meeting on Friday to reassure staffers that Biden is not dropping out of the race, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Though Trump, 78, put forward a series of falsehoods throughout the debate, the focus afterwards was squarely on Biden, especially among Democrats.
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Party leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, avoided answering directly when asked whether he still has faith in Biden’s candidacy. “I support the ticket. I support the Senate Democratic majority. We’re going to do everything possible to take back the House in November. Thank you, everyone,” he told reporters. Some other Democrats likewise demurred when asked if Biden should stay in the race.
“That’s the president’s decision,” Senator Jack Reed told a local TV station in Rhode Island. But several of the party’s most senior figures, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, said they would stick with Biden.
“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 somebody who only cares about himself,” Obama posted on X.
The New York Times editorial board, which endorsed Biden in 2020, called on him to drop out of the race to give the Democratic Party a better chance of beating Trump by picking another candidate. “The greatest public service Biden can perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election,” the editorial said.
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. One possible bright spot for Biden: preliminary viewership data shows that only 48 million Americans watched the debate, far short of the 73 million who watched the candidates’ last faceoff in 2020.
Biden, the oldest American president in history, faced only token opposition during the party’s months-long nominating contest, and has secured enough support to guarantee his spot as the Democratic nominee.
Likewise, Trump overcame intra-party challengers early in the year, setting the stage for a long and bitter general election fight. If Biden were to step aside, the party would have less than two months to pick another nominee at its national convention, which starts on August 19 – a potentially messy process that could pit Kamala Harris, the nation’s first Black female vice president, against governors and other officeholders whose names have been floated as possible replacements.
At an afternoon rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, Trump told supporters that he had a “big victory against a man looking to destroy our country”. “Biden’s problem is not his age. It’s his competence,” Trump said.
Trump advisers said they thought the debate would bolster their chances in Democratic-leaning states like Virginia, which has not backed a Republican presidential candidate since 2004.
Beforehand, some Trump supporters said they were struck by Biden’s poor performance. “I’m scared they are going to replace him and put up somebody more competitive,” said Mike Boatman, who said he had attended more than 90 Trump rallies.
Trump fundraisers said they are fielding enthusiastic calls from donors. 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. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before his party convenes to formally nominate him.
