President Joe Biden attempted to mop up on Friday after his disastrous debate performance, assuring a crowd of supporters that fears about his age and mental acuity were unfounded.
“I know I’m not a young man,” Biden said at a rally on Friday. “I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t walk 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, and I know how to do this job.”
“I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up,” he added.
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Biden supporters, aides, legacy liberal pundits and lawmakers in his own party expressed everything from disappointment to downright panic following the debate performance. Some even went as far as to suggest the president should step aside.
Longtime Biden supporter and liberal pundit Thomas Friedman called for Biden to “bow out of the race,” in an opinion piece released Friday.
Biden quashed any indication he would follow their advice, telling the crowd, “I’m here in North Carolina for one reason because I intend to win this state in November. We win here, we win the election.”
Many commenters noted that Biden’s was markedly more energetic than at his debate performance.
“Problem is, he needed to do this when everyone was watching. Hope it isn’t too late,” one wrote.
“He seems much better here,” another wrote.
According to an internal CNN poll, 67 percent of respondents found that former President Donald Trump won the debate. Fourteen percent of respondents said they were confident that Biden could lead the country, as opposed to 36 percent who said they were confident in former Trump’s ability to lead the country.
