“I can do the job”: Joe Biden returned to the campaign trail on Friday after a disastrous debate against Donald Trump, which deeply shook his supporters.
• Read also: Biden-Trump debate: Here are three important moments when the candidates lied
• Read also: Here’s our recap of the Biden-Trump debate
• Read also: Biden falters during his debate against Trump
“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,” the 81-year-old Democrat acknowledged at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“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,” added the American president, however, stating his “intention to win” this disputed state in the southeast.
AFP
No question of withdrawing his candidacy, therefore, for an American president who was almost unrecognizable on Friday, after the 90 painful minutes he spent Thursday evening facing his 78-year-old Republican rival, between swallowed words, unfinished sentences and a haggard expression.
In Raleigh, Joe Biden – helped, unlike the day before, by a teleprompter – repeated all the attacks that fell flat during the debate, praised his record and his ideas. He even took a few running strides when arriving on stage.
Donald Trump “is a crime wave all on his own,” he said of the first former American president to be criminally convicted and prosecuted in a series of cases.
“Cry”
At his side, his wife Jill Biden, very involved in this re-election attempt, wore a dress with multiple “Vote” inscriptions.
AFP
The Biden camp therefore wants to believe that by November, the terrible impression left on Thursday evening could fade, while the “lies” spouted off by Donald Trump and concerns for American democracy would take over again.
It will be difficult. The Raleigh speech obviously has nothing comparable in terms of audience with the debate organized by CNN. According to the Nielsen institute, the latter gathered 48 million viewers.
“Joe Biden, a good man, a good president, is not in a position to run for re-election,” wrote a New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, on Friday, even saying he “cried” at the performance of his “friend »Joe Biden.
Even Donald Trump’s supporters were careful not to add more.
“The guy almost made me feel sorry for him. Trump ate him alive,” commented Paul Meade, a 65-year-old retiree interviewed by AFP in Chesapeake, Virginia (east), where the 78-year-old billionaire is expected early this afternoon.
Panic
The American media are reporting a wave of “panic” among the Democrats, four months before the election and approximately six weeks before the convention supposed to inaugurate the American president.
For now, however, no Democratic Party heavyweight has publicly relayed this sentiment.
After North Carolina, Joe Biden will travel to New York for a ceremony commemorating one of the very first LGBT mobilizations in the United States, in June 1969, and for a meeting with donors.
On Saturday, he will raise funds in the chic Hamptons resort area, also an opportunity to take the pulse of his financial backers in an extremely expensive election race.
Vice-President Kamala Harris herself recognized that Joe Biden had made a “laborious” start, but felt that he had finished “strong” against an opponent who multiplied false or outrageous assertions without ever losing his calm, nor his poise.
AFP
The 59-year-old Democrat will campaign in Nevada (west) on Friday.
His name is obviously on the list of those who could replace Joe Biden in the event of his withdrawal before November, along with those of several prominent Democratic governors, such as Gavin Newsom in California or Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan.
Watch the speech in the video above
