Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
WASHINGTON — 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 atop the ticket.
Biden's halting delivery and meandering comments, particularly early in the debate, fueled concerns from even members of his own party that at age 81 he's not up for the task of leading the country for another four years. It created a crisis moment for Biden's campaign and his presidency.
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, Biden appeared far more animated than his showing the night before, and he excoriated Trump for his "lies" and campaign aimed at "revenge and retribution."
"The choice in this election is simple," Biden said. "Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it."
He added, alluding to his candidacy, "When you get knocked down, you get back up."
Even before the debate, Biden's age had been a liability with voters, and Thursday night's faceoff appeared to reinforce the public's deep-seated concerns before perhaps the largest audience he will garner in the four months until Election Day.
Privately, his campaign had spent the previous hours working to tamp down concerns and keep donors and surrogates on board. Democratic lawmakers on Friday acknowledged Biden's poor showing, but tried to stop talk of replacing him as their standard-bearer, and instead tried to shift the focus onto Trump's attacks and falsehoods that they hoped would remind voters of the daily turbulence of his presidency.
'I stand behind the ticket'
"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 Gov. 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."
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries answered with a flat "no" when asked Friday if Biden should step aside. But the New York lawmaker added that he's eager to see how 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."
Rep. Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York, said, "Since 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."
Biden's campaign announced that it raised $14 million on debate day and the morning after, while Trump's campaign said it raised more than $8 million from the start of the debate through 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. She told CNN hours after the debate, "There was a slow start, but it was a strong finish."
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 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 Jan. 6, 2021, trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden, and his embrace of the conservative-leaning Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade that had legalized abortion nationwide.
But Biden 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 legalized abortion nationwide.
'Making sure everyone in America has a fair shot'
As elected Democrats united behind Biden publicly, donors and party operatives shared panicked text messages and phone calls Thursday night and into Friday expressing their concern that Biden's performance was so bad that he may be unelectable this fall.
But there were no immediate signs of organized 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 organize hundreds of debate watch parties to get as many eyes as possible on the Biden-Trump showdown.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat frequently mentioned as a 2028 contender and speculated about as a potential replacement for 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.
Under current Democratic Party rules, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace Biden as the party's nominee without his cooperation or without party officials being willing to rewrite the rules at the August national convention.
Contributing: Stephen Groves, Brian Slodysko and Farnoush Amiri, Gary D. Robertson, Joey Cappelletti and Bill Barrow
