“I can do the job”: Joe Biden tried on Friday to silence the music on a possible withdrawal of his presidential candidacy, after a calamitous debate against Donald Trump which shook his supporters and caused the media to react.
In an editorial, the prestigious American newspaper New York Times portrayed Joe Biden as “a shadow of a leader”, after the 81-year-old president “failed his own test” in the televised duel.
“The greatest public service that Mr. Biden could perform today would be to announce that he will not run for re-election,” the editorial board wrote, adding, however, that he has been “an admirable president “.
“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 would not run again if I did not believe, with all my heart and soul, that I could do this job,” the American president added.
The leader subsequently received strong support from Barack Obama, who remains one of the most respected voices in the Democratic Party.
“Bad debates happen,” brushed off the former president, assuring that this election “remained a choice” between someone “who fought all his life for ordinary people” and Donald Trump, “who does not only cares about himself.”
No question of withdrawal of candidacy, therefore, for a president 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 haggard expression.
Even Donald Trump has said he does not “believe” in the possibility that his rival Joe Biden will throw in the towel.
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 by himself,” 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.
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, in terms of audience, nothing comparable to the debate organized by CNN. According to the Nielsen institute, the latter attracted 51 million viewers.
Even Donald Trump’s supporters were careful not to add to it.
“The guy almost made me sad. Trump ate him alive,” commented Paul Meade, a 65-year-old retiree met by AFP in Chesapeake, Virginia, where the 78-year-old billionaire is expected in the early afternoon.
– Panic –
The American media are reporting a wave of “panic” among Democrats, four months before the election and about six weeks before the convention that is supposed to swear in the president.
So far, however, no Democratic Party heavyweight has publicly echoed this sentiment.
Joe Biden is now in New York for a ceremony commemorating one of the first LGBT mobilizations in the United States, in June 1969, and for a meeting with donors.
On Saturday, he will raise funds in the very chic Hamptons resort area, an opportunity also to take the pulse of his financial supporters, in an extremely expensive electoral 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 assertions without ever losing his calm or his poise.
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.
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