US President Joe Biden returns to the campaign trail on Friday, with the difficult task of correcting course after a presidential debate that turned, at least in form, to the advantage of his Republican rival Donald Trump.
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‘I don’t debate as well as I used to,’ but ‘I can do this job,’ Biden says
“I don’t speak as easily as I used to, I don’t speak as fluently as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Joe Biden acknowledged on Friday, after a disastrous performance the day before against Donald Trump.
“I give you my word as Biden. I would not run again if I did not believe, with all my heart and soul, that I can do this job,” the American president told supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina (southeast), a state that he “intends to win.”
Campaigning to make people forget the disaster
The 81-year-old Democrat had, on Thursday evening, headed to North Carolina, for a meeting in this southeastern state which he believes he can flip in his favor in November and where he will be accompanied by his wife Jill Biden.
At the same time, he will raise funds in New York and then in the Hamptons, a very chic resort area not far away.
His 78-year-old rival will be in Chesapeake, in the state of Virginia (central east), on Friday. Donald Trump will, according to his campaign team, explain how to “reverse the effects of the failed presidency” of Mr. Biden, whose victory in 2020 he never accepted.
If Joe Biden was hoping to gain momentum at Thursday night’s meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, in the southeast, all the experts agree that it was a failure.
During a sometimes frankly angry confrontation, the Democrat tried to push his opponent to his limits and to praise his record as well as his vision of America.
But his remarks often fell flat, the fault of a particularly muddled delivery which brought concerns about his age to the forefront, including within the Democratic Party.
Vice President Kamala Harris herself acknowledged that Joe Biden had a “laborious” start to the debate, but felt that he finished “strong”.
A German official responsible for bilateral cooperation with the United States within the government in Berlin, Michael Link, even invited Democrats to reconsider Mr. Biden’s candidacy during their party conference in mid-August.
Democrats need a candidate “capable of winning” and must ask themselves “who is best placed to prevent Trump from returning to power,” Mr. Link added, interviewed by the daily. Daily Mirror.
The Democrat’s supporters want to believe, at least publicly, that by November the Americans will forget this poor performance in form, to rally, in the words of the president of his campaign team Jen O’Malley Dillon, to ” the positive and victorious vision of the democrat for the future.
The octogenarian president will obviously not be the only one in charge.
Kamala Harris, 59, sent to the front on Thursday evening to limit the damage after the debate, is going to Nevada on Friday, a state that will be hotly contested in November and where Joe Biden’s running mate will make her fifth visit since the start of the year.
The Democrat, who is campaigning vigorously across the country, will seek to “highlight the issues of the election for Hispanic voters,” according to a press release.
The American president can even count – if one can say so – on the help of a Jedi.
Mark Hamill, actor who played Luke Skywalker in the films Star Wars, and fervent supporter of the Democratic candidate, wrote in for some mandate. Period”.
Watch the speech in the video above
