WASHINGTON — Amid calls from some Democrats for him to bow out after a disastrous debate performance, a defiant President Joe Biden vowed Friday he will beat Donald Trump in the November election, making clear he has no plans to end his reelection campaign.
“I know I’m not a young man − to state the obvious,” Biden said near the end of a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Folks, 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. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth.
“I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back,” Biden said, prompting loud applause from supporters.
Biden took the stage to chants of “four more years” following performances by rappers Fat Joe and E-40. From the outset of his remarks, Biden set out to dispel any notion that he might terminate his bid for president following Thursday night’s rocky debate.
“I’m here in North Carolina for one reason: because I intend to win this state in November,” Biden said. “If we win here, we win the election.”
Biden displayed much more energy and spoke clearer than the debate, when he struggled to put together coherent sentences, got lost in his answers and failed to rebut many of Trump’s falsehoods. In his speech Friday, Biden slammed Trump as a morally corrupt liar.
“Now folks, I don’t know what you did last night, but I spent 90 minutes on the stage debating a guy who has the morals of an alley cat,” Biden said, reciting a line he delivered during the debate.
Biden said he guesses Trump broke “a new record for the most lies told in a single debate,” singling out above all the former president and presumptive Republican nominee downplaying his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“His biggest lie: He lied about how he had nothing to do with the insurrection on Jan. 6. We all saw it with our own eyes. We watched it on television,” Biden said.
“Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it,” Biden said.
During Thursday night’s debate hosted by CNN, Biden’s voice was hoarse and raspy from the start. He stumbled over words and had to correct himself with numbers. He was sometimes hard to follow. On one occasion, the president appeared to lose his train of thought, stopped speaking and concluded − confusingly − with the line, “we finally beat Medicare.”
While Trump talked, Biden often looked his way with a blank stare and his mouth open.
His performance led to calls from anonymous Democratic lawmakers, pro-Biden columnists and other Trump critics for Biden to step aside to let someone else run as the Democratic nominee.
Ahead of Biden’s rally in Raleigh, a Biden campaign adviser told USA Today that Biden does not plan to drop out of the race and is committed to taking part in a second debate against Trump. Biden’s allies in Congress, including House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., pushed back at Democratic anxieties and said Biden should stay the course.
First lady Jill Biden, wearing a black dress featuring the words “vote,” defended her husband’s debate performance as she introduced him.
“What you saw last night on the debate stage was Joe Biden: a president with integrity and character, who told the truth. And Donald Trump told lie after lie after lie,” Jill Biden said.
Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Biden ally, also gave a vigorous defense of the president.
“Here’s one thing I know to be true: When the fate of our country was hanging in the balance with a Donald Trump presidency, Joe Biden saved this nation with his victory in 2020. We must do it again in 2024.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY
