Donald Trump on Friday disparaged the idea of President Biden replacing him as the Democratic presidential nominee despite his lackluster debate performance, saying the party doesn’t have a better candidate.
Trump, 78, declared “victory” in his CNN matchup with Biden at a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Thursday, saying Biden, 81, had studied “so hard” for the Camp David debate that he “had no idea what the hell he was doing.”
Republican candidates then listed a number of Democrats who have frequently been mentioned as possible candidates to replace Biden in the 2024 presidential election, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Vice President Kamala Harris and former first lady Michelle Obama.
But Trump said he “doesn’t really believe” reports that the DNC could change the race by ousting Biden because “Biden is doing better in the polls than any Democrat they talk about.”
Trump said Newsom “cannot govern California” and that his “polling numbers are terrible.”
“Look at other players. Of course, Kamara. [list]” Trump said, in response to boos from the audience.
“Making her your vice president may have been the best decision Joe Biden ever made,” Trump said, suggesting Harris would never be able to unseat his boss because she’s too unpopular. “It may have been the best decision he ever made because nobody wants that to happen.”
“They don’t have the same approval ratings as this guy,” he continued of other Democratic candidates. “They looked at everybody’s approval ratings. They looked at Michelle Obama’s approval ratings. Her approval ratings are very bad. They’re terrible.”
With just a few months left until the November general election, Democrats are all but locked in Biden as the presumptive nominee — unless he makes a personal decision to drop out of the race.
While it’s unlikely that any other candidate would replace Biden, it’s theoretically possible that delegates who pledged their support for Biden at the Democratic National Convention in August wouldn’t vote for him, or that the DNC could decide to rewrite the convention rules to oust Biden.
Trump’s confidence that Biden will not withdraw from the election is consistent with the president’s own words and the Biden campaign’s stated determination to continue the campaign.
Biden held his own rally in North Carolina on Friday afternoon, acknowledging that he’s “not debated as well as he used to,” but promising to keep campaigning.
In Trump’s speech, the former president focused on a number of Biden’s gaffes during the debate.
“He got the debate rules he wanted. He got the schedule he wanted. He got the network he wanted. He got the moderator he wanted. No amount of recess or rigging helped,” Trump said.
The Biden campaign announced the rules they would agree to in the debate negotiations: muted microphones, no studio audience, and the debate hosted by CNN. Trump quickly agreed to the terms in May, happy to host an early debate with Biden outside the Commission on Presidential Debates, where the first debate was scheduled for September.
“It’s not about his age or anything. It’s about his ability,” the 45th president said of Biden’s debate gaffe.
“We have a totally incompetent leader in our country. He [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and President Xi Jinping [Jinping] “Premier Li Keqiang of China and Kim Jong Un of North Korea are the very best leaders,” Trump said, claiming that both leaders were “in top form.”
“He’s never been at his best. He’s never been really good. But right now, he’s not really good,” Trump criticized Biden.
Republican officials in Virginia, where Trump’s speech began, also criticized Biden’s performance.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he was “prepared to remove Joe Biden from office,” while Rep. Jen Kiggans said what she saw onstage was “absolutely elder abuse.”
Trump also used the rally as an opportunity to speak favorably about Virginia, a state his campaign is keen to win in November. He said polls show he is “leading” in the state, and praised Youngkin and Senate candidate Hung Kao for potentially “solving” Russia’s war in Ukraine.
