Biden tries to reassure in the face of voices calling for him to withdraw

“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” during the televised duel.

“The greatest public service that Joe Biden could perform today would be to announce that he will not run for re-election,” wrote the editorial committee, adding however that he has been “an admirable president” . “I don’t speak as easily as before, I don’t speak as easily as before, I don’t debate as well as before,” admitted the 81-year-old Democrat at a meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina. . “I would not run again if I did not believe, with all my heart and all my soul, that I can do this job,” added the American president.

The leader subsequently received the strong support of 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 assured that he did not “believe” in the possibility that his rival Joe Biden would 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 on his own,” he said of the first former American president to be criminally convicted and prosecuted in a series of cases.

At his side, his wife Jill Biden, very involved in this re-election attempt, wore a dress with multiple inscriptions “Vote.” 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 more. “The guy almost hurt me. Trump ate him alive,” commented Paul Meade, a 65-year-old retiree met by AFP in Chesapeake, Virginia, where the 78-year-old billionaire was expected.

The American media are reporting a wave of “panic” among Democrats, four months before the election and approximately six weeks before the convention supposed to inaugurate the president. For now, however, no Democratic Party heavyweight has publicly relayed this sentiment. Joe Biden is now in 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 very chic resort area of ​​the Hamptons, an opportunity also to take the pulse of his financial supporters, in an extremely expensive electoral race. Vice President Kamala Harris herself acknowledged that Joe Biden had made a “laborious” start but felt that he had finished “strongly” against an opponent who multiplied false claims without ever losing his calm or his aplomb.