President Biden He ignored calls from Democratic officials and pundits that he should step down as the party’s nominee after his widely criticized debate performance, and vowed at a rally on Friday to win North Carolina and the White House.
Democrats and liberal media figures are reportedly “panicking” as Biden slurred his words during Thursday’s presidential debate on CNN, kept glaring at TV cameras and looked sick and tired. But the president ignored his critics and took aim at former President Trump in front of a cheering audience in Raleigh the next day.
“I know I’m not young … I don’t debate like I used to, but I know what I know: I know how to tell the truth,” Biden told the crowd.
The president claimed Trump had “set a new record for the most lies told in a single debate,” launching a forceful and forceful attack on the record of Trump, who was quiet on stage in Atlanta on Thursday night.
Trump, Biden to hold dueling rallies in these key states after debate to expand 2024 map
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden walk off stage after a campaign event on June 28, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden said Trump lied about the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic, health care for veterans and his handling of crime.
“Under my supervision, Violent crime “It’s hit a 50-year low,” Biden said. “Then I pointed out that the only convicted felon on stage last night was Donald Trump. Well, I thought about his 34 felony counts, his sexual assault on a woman in a public place. He’s been fined $400 million for business fraud.”
“I thought to myself, Donald Trump is not just a criminal. Donald Trump is a crime wave perpetrated by one man,” she said, as the crowd began chanting “Put him in jail,” referring to Trump.
Ahead of his face-off with Trump in Atlanta, the 81-year-old Biden sought to reassure voters and members of his party that he is capable of being president despite growing concerns about his age.
Biden speaks at a post-debate campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 28, 2024. Last night President Biden and Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump faced off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign. (Alison Joyce/Getty Images)
Pundits declared Trump the debate winner not based on the strength of his answers but on Biden’s comparative weakness. The incumbent president spoke haltingly and at times seemed to lose his train of thought as he traded sharp attacks with Trump on the economy and inflation, immigration and border security, abortion, the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, and other issues.
In response to a question on the economy, Biden once said, “Sorry, deal with that, deal with that,” and when time ran out, he said, “We finally beat Medicare.”
Trump immediately responded: “That’s right, they defeated Medicaid, they completely defeated it. And they’re destroying Medicare.”
In another notable moment just minutes later, after Biden’s vague answer on immigration, Trump took aim at his opponent’s incoherent speech.
Biden gave no indication he intends to step aside as the Democratic presidential nominee, as critics lambasted his debate performance. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
“I don’t really know what he said on the subject, and I don’t think he even knows what he said,” Trump said.
full led optics Slowdown in Democrat-friendly mediaJournalists from multiple media outlets have reported on dozens of Democratic Party officials saying Biden should consider declining his party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
Biden gave no indication at his rally in Raleigh that he would do so, and insisted he was capable of defeating Trump.
“I can do this job because, frankly, the stakes are too high,” Biden said. “Donald Trump is a real threat to this country.”
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Biden has about four months and a second debate — to be hosted by ABC News on Sept. 10 — to make his case against Trump before the November vote. Undeterred by his critics, he insisted in Raleigh that he would win both North Carolina and the White House.
“I know, as millions of Americans do, that when you fall, you get back up,” he said.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
