Biden acknowledges weak debate performance as Democratic questions swirl over whether he’ll stay in the presidential race
President Joe Biden’s campaign insisted Friday he will not drop out of the 2024 race, but fractures between those in the president’s orbit insisting on trudging forward and the broader Democratic world seeking a last-minute change were growing after Biden’s disastrous debate performance.
Biden acknowledged the weak performance while giving a much more animated speech in North Carolina on Friday, saying, “I know I’m not a young man. I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t talk as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but i know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job, I know how to get things done. And I know what millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up.”
From the West Wing to Wilmington, Biden advisers spent Friday morning calling Democratic members of Congress, donors and other key supporters in hopes of allaying some of the widespread panic about the debate with former President Donald Trump on CNN Thursday night.
Biden’s performance — rife with a raspy voice, an often mouth-agape facial expression and one painful moment in which the president lost his train of thought and suddenly stopped speaking — laid bare the potential political costs of nominating the oldest-ever president for a second term.
Asked whether Biden would exit the race, Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster responded: “No.”
“There’s no basis for that,” one Biden adviser also told CNN Friday morning. “There’s nothing that voters have indicated that they agree with that.”
Mitch Landrieu, the campaign’s co-chair, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Friday night that he has “100% confidence in Joe Biden,” adding that it will be “his decision alone whether he’s going to continue.”
“And I think he answered that question for the public today in North Carolina,” Landrieu said on “The Source.”
Despite anxiety from some donors, campaign sources highlighted a record $14 million 24-hour fundraising haul on Thursday, which comes amid signs that Biden’s fundraising edge is slipping. The campaign set its new hourly fundraising record during the 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. hour Thursday following the debate, but a campaign official declined to provide a dollar amount.
Biden’s advisers also spent part of the day making calls to ease concerns among some Democratic donors as the campaign prepares for a long-planned fundraising push this weekend.
The projections of confidence coming from Biden’s White House and reelection campaign come amid questions even Biden allies are raising over whether anyone with the president’s ear will seek to convince him to suspend his campaign.
Democratic congressional leaders are not planning a direct intervention with Biden, according to multiple Democratic sources. Instead, they plan to focus on House and Senate races as they let the debate’s dust settle with the public, and then assess the strength of Biden’s campaign in the weeks ahead.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday morning he is standing by Biden — but he added that he is waiting to hear from Biden at a North Carolina campaign rally later Friday.
“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,” Jeffries said.
Even as calls for Biden to consider dropping out of the race grew on Friday, Democratic operatives and elected officials alike appeared largely resigned to the reality that him doing so was, at best, a remote possibility — and most likely a delusional fantasy.
One significant reason: the unequivocal support from Biden’s famously impenetrable innermost circle of advisers.
One Biden aide argued that while the president is deeply insulated by the tight circle of aides who prepped him at Camp David, the buck ultimately stops with him.
“The people around him aren’t yes-men. All of them know how to tell him no. But once he makes a decision, they are really good at staying united,” the aide said.
For instance, there wasn’t agreement on Biden’s decision to seek a second term, “but once he decides, he decides,” and the wagons are circled.
“The most likely scenario is that nothing f**king changes, right? Because why would it?” said one Democratic operative.
The operative pointed the finger at the president’s top advisers for allowing Biden to take the debate stage while knowing what they must have known.
“It’s not like Biden’s inner circle didn’t know this before last night. It’s not like all of a sudden, they’re like, ‘Oh, wow. He’s showing some signs of age,’” the operative said.
One persistent gripe among Biden supporters was why his advisers did not think to preemptively share the fact that the president had been battling a cold, leading to Biden sounding raspy and soft-spoken — and as a result, at times unintelligible — on the debate stage.
One Democratic congressman said “everyone” in the party was privately buzzing about whether to try to convince the president to drop out, despite party leaders publicly standing by Biden. But the “question is — who will do something about it?” they said.
The New York Times Editorial Board on Friday called for Biden to withdraw from the race, writing, “The greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.” The board said in part that “there is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden.”
The board, though, wrote that it would still support Biden as its “unequivocal pick” if he remains in the race and against his predecessor.
Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond pushed back later Friday, saying, “The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board’s endorsement, it turned out pretty well for him.”