A day after delivering the most momentous political performance of his decades-long career, President Biden sought to address panic among Democrats following his disastrous performance in their first debate against former President Trump.
“Needless to say, I know I’m not getting any younger,” Biden, who at 81 is the oldest president in U.S. history, told cheering supporters at a rally Friday afternoon in the key battleground state of North Carolina.
“Followers, 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,” Biden acknowledged. “But I know what I 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, as millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you can get up.”
The president then mentioned he would face Trump again in 2024, saying, “I wouldn’t be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul that I could do this job.”
Biden’s raspy voice and choppy performance in Trump debate
President Biden speaks at a post-debate rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 28, 2024. (Alison Joyce/Getty Images)
As Biden sought to calm his party, his campaign repeatedly highlighted his record-breaking fundraising during and after the debate, seemingly aiming to distract from the brutal narrative emerging from the Atlanta showdown.
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The Biden campaign also announced Friday morning that it had raised $14 million between Thursday and Friday morning, highlighting it as a “sign of the strength of grassroots support.”
Biden struggled during the debate’s first half, struggling with a husky voice and incoherent answers, but the president clarified his answers as the debate went on, repeatedly accusing his Republican predecessor in the White House of falsehoods throughout the 90-minute debate.
President Biden (right) and former President Trump participate in the CNN presidential debate in Atlanta. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
But Biden’s shaky and at times halting performance dominated the headlines of the debate, leading to calls from political pundits, publications and some Democrats for the president to step down as the party’s standard-bearer. Biden’s aides pushed back, defending the president and accusing Trump of lying throughout the debate.
And the Biden campaign highlighted that the hour after the debate, from 11pm ET on Thursday, was “the most fundraising hour of the campaign since the start of the campaign in April 2023.”
What Biden said at his first post-debate rally
A Biden campaign adviser, who requested anonymity to speak more freely, told Fox News that the fundraising is “a major sign that there’s some disconnect between the national tone and where his supporters are.”
Following the rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, the president and first lady Jill Biden traveled to New York City, where they joined superstars Elton John and Katy Perry, as well as leading Democratic elected officials, for the dedication of the city’s Stonewall National Monument Visitors Center. The grand opening was timed to kick off New York City’s Pride Weekend and mark the 55th anniversary of the historic uprising that marked a turning point for LGBTQ+ liberation.
President Biden speaks at the grand opening ceremony of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, Friday, June 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nickinson)
Biden later headlined a campaign fundraiser on Friday night in New York City, which his campaign billed as “the largest LGBTQ fundraiser in political history.”
On Saturday, the president was scheduled to appear at two more big-ticket fundraisers in the affluent communities of East Hampton, New York, and Red Bank, New Jersey.
“Biden’s record grassroots fundraising starting on debate day is crucial because it helps defuse criticism of his performance,” Maria Cardona, a veteran political strategist and Democratic National Committee member, told Fox News.
Cardona, a leading Biden ally, said the spotlight on fundraising “reminds Democrats of our enthusiasm for the president and the urgency of keeping a liar and criminal, Donald Trump, out of the Oval Office.”
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The Democratic strategist and presidential campaign veteran said the Biden campaign’s focus on fundraising “may be their best and only trump card.”
But the strategist, who was allowed to speak more freely because he was anonymous, stressed that “no amount of money can undo the damage that was done in the debate, and that the president confirmed everyone’s worst suspicions and fears about him, his age and his unfitness for the job. Period.”
But Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, downplayed the fundraising.
“As of last week, the Biden campaign had spent $100 million on cable, TV and radio. They’ve sunk the money into a bloated organization. But President Trump’s lead is growing in battleground states, and polls and on-the-ground enthusiasm have made Virginia and Minnesota swing states for the Republican nominee for the first time in several election cycles,” Hughes told Fox News.
The Trump campaign, enjoying the post-debate buzz, saw no immediate need to highlight its own fundraising.
However, the campaign told Fox News on Friday afternoon that it had raised $8 million on the day of the debate.
“The donations are coming in at a very high and steady rate because people understood where the president stands in last night’s debate,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, an ally of Trump’s, said in an interview a few hours ago on Fox News’ Fox and Friends. “The donations, especially the small online donations we’re seeing now, reflect the enthusiasm the president is putting into this campaign.”
And Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita told Fox News Digital on Thursday night that the debate performance was “additional rocket fuel” for the former president’s fundraising efforts and to “boost the morale of his troops.”
Dan Eberhart, the CEO of an oil drilling company and a prominent Republican donor, has been fundraising for Trump after endorsing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the Republican presidential nomination.
“The donors I’ve been messaging with are now even more confident that Trump will win,” Eberhart said. “For those who were still on the sidelines, last night was the push they needed to bet on Trump.”
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