Biden ignores calls to retire: “I don’t debate like I used to, but I know how to do this job” | USA Elections

Joe Biden is ready to stand up. In front of a devoted public, the President of the United States has shown himself determined to keep running for re-election despite calls to reconsider after his disastrous performance in Thursday’s debate against Republican Donald Trump. Biden appeared again this Friday at a rally in Raleigh (North Carolina), the state where he lost against Trump in 2020, but not by an overwhelming margin. “I’m here because I want to win the election in November and if we win in North Carolina we win the election,” he said, trying to adopt an energetic tone. ”I know I’m not a young man to put it bluntly,” he admitted. “I no longer move as freely as I used to. I don’t speak as fluently as I used to. I don’t debate as I used to. But I know what I know: I know how to speak the truth, I know right and wrong, I know how to do this job, I know how to get the job done. And I know what millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up.”

“It’s hard to argue with a liar,” he had justified himself the day before. More than his problems in refuting the lies of Trump, who emerged victorious from the debate with his apocalyptic and demagogic messages, his problem was that he was drowned in a tidal wave of omissions, hesitations and incomplete sentences. He was coughing repeatedly, his voice was trembling and his voice sounded heavy, apparently due to a cold, throughout the debate. This Friday he clearly looked in better condition, although still with some cough.

Amid chants of “four more years” from his followers and reading speeches on the screen, he has harshly attacked the Republican candidate. He has assured that Trump “broke the record for lying in the debates” and has reiterated that his opponent, as he told him to his face on Thursday, “has the morals of a stray cat.”

“Lock him up.”

The crowd was devoted. “The only convicted criminal on stage yesterday was Donald Trump,” he said, while attendees chanted: “Lock him up!” When Trumpists called for Hillary Clinton to be put in jail, they chanted at the rally: “Lock her up!”

Biden once again cast his predecessor as a threat to democracy, the economy and the country’s future, some of his usual arguments. His intervention was brief and direct, far more effective than his performance in Thursday’s debate. “The choice in this election is simple: Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it,” he said.

The first lady, Jill Biden, who some are asking to convince her husband to throw in the towel, also attended the rally wearing a black dress on which was repeated in white letters: “VOTE.” She has assured that “right now” she is the most suitable person for the position. “What you saw in the debate yesterday is her honesty and character. She told the truth, while Trump told one lie after another,” she said minutes before the president arrived on the scene.

Biden’s campaign billed the Raleigh event as the biggest rally of his re-election bid in the state Trump won by the narrowest margin in 2020. He will then travel to New York for a weekend to raise funds, which his campaign needs now more than ever.

The Biden campaign announced it raised $14 million (€13 million) on the day of the debate and the following morning, while the Trump campaign said it raised over $8 million from the start of the debate to the end of the night.

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