Biden seeks to repair debate damage with fiery speech, vowing to defeat Trump

RALEIGH, North Carolina: A fired-up Joe Biden came out swinging on Friday (Jun 28) as he tried to make up for a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, insisting he was the right man to win November's US presidential election.

Biden's appearance at a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina came amid rumblings in his alarmed Democratic Party about replacing the 81-year-old as their nominee - and shortly before the nation's most influential newspaper urged him to step aside.

"I know I'm not a young man, to state the obvious ... 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," Biden admitted to supporters in unusually confessional remarks.

"But I know how to tell the truth. I know how to do this job," he said to huge cheers, vowing "when you get knocked down, you get back up."

Biden's team was in damage-control mode after Thursday's debate when he often hesitated, tripped over words and lost his train of thought - exacerbating fears about his ability to serve another term.

He had hoped to allay qualms about his advanced age, and to expose Trump as a habitual liar.

But the president failed to counter his bombastic rival, who offered up a largely unchallenged reel of false or misleading statements about everything from the economy to immigration.

On Friday, Biden delivered the lines Democrats wished they had heard in the televised debate.

"Did you see Trump last night? My guess is he set - and I mean this sincerely - a new record for the most lies told in a single debate," Biden said.

"Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He's a threat to our freedom. He's a threat to our democracy. He's literally a threat for everything America stands for."

Trump also returned to the campaign trail Friday, speaking at a rally in Virginia and launching his familiar attacks on Biden in a rambling speech.

"It's not his age, it's his competence," Trump said.

"The question every voter should be asking themselves today is not whether Joe Biden can survive a 90-minute debate performance, but whether America can survive four more years of crooked Joe Biden."

A NEW DEMOCRAT?

Following the debate, three columnists from the New York Times' left-leaning opinion section called on Biden to drop out of the race.

One Biden donor, who asked for anonymity, called his performance "disqualifying" and predicted that some Democrats would revisit calls for him to step aside.

So far, no senior Democratic figure has publicly called on Biden to withdraw, with most toeing a party line about sticking with the existing ticket.

"I will never turn my back on President Biden," California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has figured prominently on lists of possible replacement candidates, said immediately after the debate.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior Democrats also said they were not abandoning Biden.

"Stay the course. Chill out," Representative Jim Clyburn said.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Party leader in the US House of Representatives, avoided answering directly when asked if he still had 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.

Forcing a change in the ticket would be politically fraught, and Biden would have to decide himself to withdraw to make way for another nominee before the party convention next month.

Biden overwhelmingly won the primary votes, and the party's 3,900 delegates heading to the convention in Chicago are beholden to him.

If he exits, the delegates would have to find a replacement.

"Bad debate nights happen," Biden's former boss, Barack Obama, wrote on X.

But the election is "still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself".

Campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said there were no conversations taking place about the possibility of Biden dropping out. "We'd rather have one bad night than a candidate with a bad vision for where he wants to take the country," he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

On the chances of Biden being replaced by another candidate, Trump said: "I don't really believe that because he does better in polls than any of the (other) Democrats."

Questions about Trump's fitness for office have also arisen over his conviction last month in New York for covering up hush money payments to a porn star, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his chaotic term in office.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jul 11, just days before his party convenes to formally nominate him. He still faces three other criminal indictments, although none appears likely to reach trial before November.

A second debate is scheduled for Sep 10.