United States President Joe Biden has acknowledged a poor outing in his debate with rival, Donald Trump.
In the first debate of the 2024 election cycle, Trump towered above the Democratic Party presidential hopeful.
The Biden campaign had hoped that a strong debate would quell concerns among voters that the 81-year-old Democratic incumbent is too old to serve a second four-year term.
Instead, a hoarse-sounding Biden stumbled over his words at times, especially in the early stages of the debate.
One Biden donor, who asked for anonymity to speak freely about the president, called his performance “disqualifying” and predicted that some Democrats would revisit calls for Biden to step aside in favor of another candidate ahead of the party’s national convention in August.
Panicking Democrats exchanged messages wondering whether Biden would consider stepping down.
One senior Democratic strategist said it would be unprecedented for an incumbent to pull out this late in the election cycle, but there would be calls for Biden to do just that.
But while addressing supporters at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Friday, Biden said, “Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak 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. I know, as millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up.”
The US President also noted that he won’t allow Trump to “attack our democracy again, I don’t think so folks.”
The US has come “a long way from the mess that Donald Trump left,” he said, noting that the ex-president has caused a “constitutional crisis and international embarrassment.”
Biden said he still believes America is a country of “honesty and decency” and is the “beacon of the world. Donald Trump is motivated by revenge and retribution, well revenge and retribution never built a damn thing.”
While making comments on last night’s debate, the US President stated, “I don’t know what you did last night, but I spent 90 minutes on a stage debating with a guy who has the morals of an alley cat.”
“Did you see Trump last night? My guess is he set, and I mean this sincerely, a new record for the most lies told in a single debate,” he added.
