UPDATED 1:12 P.M.
RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) -President Joe Biden said on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign that he would consider dropping out of the race after a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
“I’m here in North Carolina for one reason because I intend to win this state in November,” Biden said at a rally in the battleground state one day after the head-to-head showdown with his Republican rival, which was widely viewed as a defeat for the 81-year-old president.
“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” an ebullient Biden said, encouraged by a crowd chanting, “four more years.”
“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 said.
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 Nov. 5 U.S. election.
For his part Trump, 78, put forward a series of falsehoods and deflected questions throughout the debate, but much of the focus afterward 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 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.
Other Democrats said they would assess their options in the days to come. Asked if they should look for another nominee, Representative Jim McGovern said: “I haven’t come to any conclusion yet.”
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.
Biden, already the oldest American president in history, faced only token opposition during the party’s months-long nominating contest, and he has secured enough support to guarantee his spot as the Democratic nominee.
Former President Trump likewise overcame his intra-party challengers early in the year, setting the stage for a long and bitter general election fight.
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.
That would give the party time to pick another nominee at its national convention, which starts on Aug. 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.
“If he made this decision, it’s important that we use it to our advantage,” Democratic Representative Katie Porter said at a conference in Colorado.
Democratic officials played down that possibility.
“It’s not likely to happen,” Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu said on CNN.
One campaign staffer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were frustrated by Biden’s performance and hoped it would prompt top strategists to re-think their approach.
But other aides and allies said privately they did not think the blowback would threaten his chances of winning the nomination.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior Democrats – including possible replacements like California Governor Gavin Newsom – said they were not abandoning Biden.
“Stay the course. Chill out,” Representative Jim Clyburn said.
A BAD NIGHT FOR BIDEN, UNDECIDED VOTERS SAY
Interviews with undecided voters confirmed that it was a bad night for Biden. They described his showing as feeble, embarrassing and difficult to watch.
The Trump campaign released a video on Friday highlighting Biden’s stumbles. “Last night the world saw who he is. He is unfit to serve,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
One Republican adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the debate would help them compete in Democratic-leaning states like Virginia and Minnesota.
Trump fundraisers said they were fielding enthusiastic calls from donors. “Anyone who raises money knows there’s a time to go to donors, and this is one of those watershed moments,” said Ed McMullen, who served as ambassador to Switzerland during Trump’s presidency.
As Trump supporters lined up hours ahead of a rally in Virginia, some 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.
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.
The 90-minute debate at CNN headquarters in Atlanta took place more than four months before the election. That could mitigate the damage for Biden, as the memory of his performance fades and news events generate fresh headlines.
Trump, for instance, is scheduled to be sentenced in New York on July 11, just days before his party convenes to formally nominate him. He still faces three other criminal indictments, though none appears likely to reach trial before November.
(Reporting by Steve Holland in North Carolina and David Morgan, Trevor Hunnicutt, Nandita Bose, Richard Cowan, Makini Brice, Gram Slattery and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Additional reporting by Tim Reid, Nathan Layne and Jarrett Renshaw; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, Kieran Murray and Howard Goller)
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ATLANTA (Reuters) -President Joe Biden’s allies scrambled to contain the fallout on Friday from his faltering performance at the first 2024 U.S. presidential debate after he struggled to stem a barrage of attacks and false claims from his Republican rival Donald Trump.
The Biden campaign had hoped that a strong debate would quell concerns among voters that the 81-year-old Democratic incumbent is too old to serve a second four-year term.
Instead, a hoarse Biden stumbled over his words and lost his train of thought at times, especially early in the debate.
One Biden donor, who asked for anonymity, called his performance “disqualifying” and predicted that some Democrats would revisit calls for Biden to step aside in favor of another candidate before the party’s national convention in August.
Panicking Democrats exchanged messages wondering whether Biden would consider stepping down.
One senior Democratic strategist said there would be calls for Biden to step down.
One such plea came from Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist who has the president’s ear, who called Biden a good man and a good president in an opinion piece early Friday. But to stop Trump, he wrote, “the president has to come forward and declare that he will not be running for re-election.”
“It’s not likely to happen,” retorted Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu on CNN. As the dust clears from the debate and with four months left before the election, he predicted Biden and Trump would be the nominees in November.
Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, urged Democrats to stop worrying and start working.
“Joe Biden had a bad debate, right, but Donald Trump was a bad president,” Shapiro said.
Interviews with undecided voters confirmed that it was a bad night for Biden. They described his showing as feeble, embarrassing and difficult to watch.
Two White House officials said mid-debate that Biden had a cold, reflecting his aides’ anxiety about his performance.
Vice President Kamala Harris conceded that Biden had a “slow start” but argued that his record over 3-1/2 years as president outweighed one 90-minute event.
California Governor Gavin Newsom – who could be a leading Democratic alternative if Biden stepped aside – dismissed the notion that Biden could be replaced.
Trump, 78, has also faced questions about his fitness for office, given 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.
But despite a litany of falsehoods from Trump during the debate, the focus in the aftermath was squarely on the incumbent.
Neither candidate is popular, and polls show many Americans are dissatisfied with their options. The country is deeply polarized, and a majority of voters have expressed concern that political violence could follow the election.
The debate at CNN headquarters in Atlanta took place far earlier in the campaign than any modern presidential debate, with more than four months – an eternity in U.S. politics – before the Nov. 5 election.
That could mitigate the damage for Biden, as the memory of his performance fades and news events generate fresh headlines.
Trump, for instance, is scheduled to be sentenced in New York on July 11, just days before his party convenes to formally nominate him. He still faces three other criminal indictments, though none appears likely to reach trial before November.
With opinion polls showing the race in a dead heat going into the debate, even a small shift could alter the campaign’s trajectory.
At a Waffle House restaurant in Atlanta in the wee hours on Friday, Biden stopped for food on his way back to the campaign trail, telling reporters, “I think we did well.”
Asked whether he had any concerns about his performance, he said, “No. It’s hard to debate a liar.”
Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama, cautioned Democrats against playing down Biden’s performance.
“Telling people they didn’t see what they saw is not the way to respond to this,” he wrote in an X post.
Biden was headed for a Friday rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, a state that Democrats hope to win back from Republicans this November, before flying to New York for a fundraiser and the opening of a monument dedicated to the 1969 Stonewall riot for LGBT rights.
Trump will hold a rally on Friday in Virginia, a state he has lost twice but hopes to put into play in November.
TRADING INSULTS
The two candidates clashed on Thursday over the economy, abortion, immigration and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza in a debate that included some deeply personal attacks.
Trump unleashed numerous familiar false claims, including that the 2020 election was fraudulent, that Democrats support infanticide and that migrants have carried out a wave of violent crime. He defended his supporters arrested for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, refused to say whether he would accept this year’s election results and suggested he might prosecute Biden if he wins.
But Biden struggled to fact-check his predecessor in real time, and CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash did not correct Trump on air.
Biden landed some blows during the debate. He called Trump a felon and noted that the majority of Trump’s former Cabinet have declined to endorse his campaign.
“This guy has no sense of American democracy,” Biden said during a segment on the Jan. 6 attack.
Biden also blamed Trump for enabling the elimination of a nationwide right to abortion by appointing conservatives to the U.S. Supreme Court, an issue that has bedeviled Republicans since 2022.
On immigration, Trump’s strongest issue, the former president accused Biden of failing to secure the southern U.S. border, ushering in scores of criminals.
But studies show immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans.
The two candidates’ intense dislike for each other was in plain view throughout the debate, starting when they did not shake hands as they took the stage.
Biden called Trump a “whiner” and a “child” who, he said, cheated on his wife with a porn star and had the “morals of an alley cat.” Trump said Biden was a “disaster” and a “Manchurian candidate” who favored China over the United States. At one point, the debate devolved into a fight over which man had a better golf game.
The second and final debate in this year’s campaign is scheduled for September.
See a Reuters photo slide show of previous debates.
(Reporting by Helen Coster and Steve Holland in Atlanta and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Doina Chiacu; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Kieran Murray, Howard Goller and Nick Zieminski)
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