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Biden tries to pivot from debate as Trump seeks to spotlight president’s struggles

The first debate of the 2024 presidential election is in the history books.  But the question – one week later – is whether President Joe Biden will remain in the race after a weak performance that has raised questions within his own party about his age and mental fitness to lead. Meanwhile, his opponent, Donald Trump, is keeping his focus on Biden’s shaky performance. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti takes a look.
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In 2nd quarter, Trump raises $331M, Biden raises $264M for campaigns

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Democrats publicly voicing worries about Biden campaign

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Texas lawmaker is first Democrat to publicly call for Biden to step down as party’s nominee

washington — A House Democratic lawmaker has become the first in the party to publicly call for President Joe Biden to step down as the Democratic nominee for president, citing Biden’s debate performance failing to “effectively defend his many accomplishments.”

Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas said in a statement Tuesday that Biden should “make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw.”

“My decision to make these strong reservations public is not done lightly nor does it in any way diminish my respect for all that President Biden has achieved,” Doggett said. “Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so.”

Senior Democratic leaders have been expressing support for Biden following the recent debate.
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Nikki Haley voters could swing US presidential election 

Former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley continued to draw support from Republican voters long after she dropped out of this year’s U.S. presidential race. VOA’s Dora Mekouar looks at how Haley supporters may help determine the winner of the election between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
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US Supreme Court: Trump entitled to some immunity in election interference case

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Could Biden’s party replace him as their presidential nominee?

U.S. presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump are back on the campaign trail following their first debate last week. Biden’s sometimes-struggling performance in that debate has some members of his political party looking at who might replace him as their nominee. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns has our story.
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Key Democrats reject calls for Biden to drop out of 2024 race

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Biden appeals to donors concerned about debate performance

NEW YORK — U.S. President Joe Biden is looking to recapture his mojo and reassure donors at a Saturday fundraiser that he is fully up to the challenge of beating Donald Trump.

The 81-year-old’s troubling performance at the first presidential debate Thursday rattled many Democrats, who see Trump after the January 6, 2021, insurrection as an existential threat to U.S. democracy. Biden’s meandering answers and struggles to respond to Trump prompted The New York Times editorial board to declare Friday that he should exit the race and that staying in would be a “reckless gamble.”

Biden and his wife, Jill, planned to attend an afternoon campaign meeting in East Hampton, New York, the Long Island beach town where the real estate firm Zillow prices the median home at $1.9 million. Scheduled later was an evening fundraiser in Red Bank, New Jersey.

In the aftermath of Thursday night’s debate, Biden flashed more vigor in speeches in North Carolina and New York on Friday, saying he believes with “all my heart and soul” that he can do the job of the presidency.

The Biden campaign said it has raised more than $27 million on Thursday and Friday, including $3 million at a New York City fundraiser focused on the LGBTQ+ community.

Jill Biden told supporters Friday that he said to her after the debate, “You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great.” The first lady then said she responded to him, “Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president.”

The Democratic president still needs to allay the fears stirred by the debate as it seeped into the public conscience with clips and memes spreading on the internet and public pressure for him to bow out of the race.

Democratic donors across New York, Southern California and Silicon Valley privately expressed deep concerns about the viability of Biden’s campaign in the wake of his debate performance.

In a series of text message chains and private conversations, they discussed the short list of possible replacements, a group that included Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris.

But on Friday, there was no formal push to pressure Biden to step aside, and some suspected there never would be given the logistical challenges associated with replacing the presumptive nominee just four months before Election Day.

Some donors noted they were going to pause their personal giving. They said receipts from Biden’s weekend fundraiser would almost certainly be strong because the tickets were sold and paid for before the debate.
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Democracy advocates worry Jan. 6 Capitol riot is being forgotten

WASHINGTON — In the first presidential debate, Republican Donald Trump skimmed over the January 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, shifted blame for the violent mob siege and declined repeatedly to state unequivocally that he will accept the results of this year’s White House election.

And President Joe Biden, who has said the work of his presidency is to restore the soul of the nation, flubbed and floundered, failing to forcefully confront, contradict and hold Trump, the indicted former president, accountable for the attack on the election — and democracy.

It is an extraordinary moment, or lack of one, that is alarming to democracy advocates, the far-reaching effort to overturn the 2020 election and the subsequent insurrection that defined the Trump presidency fading from view during the opening debate of the general election campaign.

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democrat who chaired the House’s January 6 committee investigation in the last Congress, said it is a deeply unfortunate situation.

“We could have a January 6, 2.0,” Thompson said Friday outside the Capitol.

The outcome underscores the choice Americans face this fall as the riot over the 2020 election remains fundamental to the 2024 campaign, but also obscured by it, despite the four-count federal indictment against Trump for working to overturn the results four years ago in the run-up to the violent siege and despite the convictions of more than 1,000 people in the Capitol attack.

It comes as the Supreme Court is weighing cases involving January 6, including a decision Friday that makes it easier for some rioters to contest their charges and convictions, and another expected Monday on whether Trump can claim immunity in the federal election case.

All told, what seemed politically untenable, as the defeated Trump departed Washington downcast on Biden’s inauguration day on January 20, 2021, is now within reach as the president who tried to overturn an election is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, edging toward an Oval Office return.

“We are four months away from the first presidential election since a violent attack on our Capitol. … And the man responsible for that — Donald Trump — is currently the leading candidate,” said Ian Bassin, executive director of the advocacy group Protect Democracy, which works to counter authoritarianism.

“You’d think that alone would be disqualifying, or at a minimum would be the central focus of the election,” he said.

And yet, Bassin said, the topic was “relegated to an afterthought” in the debate, “and the current president is struggling to press the case on why this issue should be of existential importance.”

The forum itself is not necessarily to blame. The moderators pressed the candidates, asking Trump not once, but repeatedly, whether he would commit to not having another January 6 and accepting the results of the election this time.

Trump insisted he had “virtually nothing to do” with the storming of the Capitol on January 6 and tried to shift blame to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, repeating his false claims about the delay in sending in the National Guard.

Biden, whose underwhelming debate performance of stunted answers and trailing thoughts has sent the Democratic Party into turmoil, struggled to deliver a cohesive response, despite having given high-profile speeches about January 6, including on the first anniversary.

“Look, he encouraged those folks to go up on Capitol Hill,” Biden said on the debate stage.

Thompson, whose committee produced a lengthy, 1,000-plus page report on its investigation into Trump’s monthslong attempt to overturn the election and the storming of the Capitol, said Biden missed a “golden opportunity” to set the record straight as millions of people watched the debate.

It was left to the people who actually experienced January 6, the lawmakers who fled to safety as the mob of Trump supporters approached, to respond. Rioters, many wielding flag poles and with tactical gear, engaged in brutal, bloody hand-to-hand combat, fighting the U.S. Capitol Police to gain access to the building.

“January 6 was a dark day,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, on social media.

“Trump-inspired insurrectionists sought to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power,” he said. Schumer decried Friday’s “shameful decision” from the Supreme Court that he said “will embolden anti-democracy radicals and make it harder for our judicial system to try insurrectionists.”

Pelosi said Trump presented “another pack of lies” during the debate. “How dare he place the blame for January 6th on anyone but himself, the inciter of an insurrection?”

On Friday, the Supreme Court limited a federal obstruction law that has been used to charge Trump, alongside hundreds of Capitol riot defendants. While the ruling is certain to cause a reconsideration of some cases against the rioters, it is unclear how it will impact Trump’s indictment, which includes other charges.

Trump, during a rally Friday in Chesapeake, Virginia, said a “great thing” just happened in response to the decision in the obstruction case, to the roar of “USA!” chants from the crowd.

“They should be immediately released — immediately,” Trump said about the defendants he called “the J6 hostages.”

A more energized Biden, at his own rally in the swing state of North Carolina, said, “The choice in this election is simple. Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it.”
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Who will Trump choose for vice president?

Who will U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump pick to be his vice presidential running mate? With the Republican National Convention approaching next month, Trump has been mum about his choice, but several contenders have emerged. VOA’s Tina Trinh tells us each of those prospective running mates brings an opportunity to expand Trump’s base of support.
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Biden addresses poor debate performance as critics suggest he drop out of presidential race

US President Joe Biden addressed concerns Friday about what was roundly viewed as a poor debate performance the night before. Some supporters are now calling for him to drop out of the presidential race, but analysts say the incumbent is still on track to secure his party’s nomination. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
Camera: Genia Dulot, Angelina Bagdasaryan
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Explainer: Replacing Biden as a presidential candidate

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Biden-Trump debate draws 48M TV viewers

new york — Roughly 48 million TV viewers tuned in to watch Thursday’s U.S. presidential debate between Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump, according to preliminary Nielsen data.

The number suggests the final audience will be about one-third less than the 73 million people who watched the candidates’ first face-off in 2020, and among the three lowest-rated first presidential debates since 1976.

The relatively low number compared with past debates in recent election cycles could be indicative of low voter enthusiasm for both candidates. It does not capture the full extent of online viewing, which has grown in popularity as traditional TV audiences decline.

Media experts were looking to see how a new format by host CNN would play out, and whether it would provide a template for future debates. The restrictions of that format, which included the option for CNN to mute the candidates’ microphones, imposed some discipline on the candidates and should be emulated by other networks, three media experts said.

CNN, which held the exclusive rights to present the debate, allowed candidates two minutes for each answer and one minute for rebuttals, and muted their microphones if they exceeded those limits. The studio did not have an audience, and moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper did not fact-check the candidates in real time.

CNN defended itself against the criticism from some media commentators that the absence of real-time fact-checking allowed both candidates to spread false claims.

“The role of the moderators is to present the candidates with questions that are important to American voters and to facilitate a debate, enabling candidates to make their case and challenge their opponent,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement.
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Worried Democrats discuss replacing Biden after debate disaster

  Washington  — After what many deemed a disappointing performance by U.S. President Joe Biden in Thursday night’s debate against Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, Democrats are discussing whether their 81-year-old incumbent should be replaced at the top of the presidential ticket by someone younger.

The Biden campaign’s strategy “to get an early debate on the books in order to change the arc of the campaign failed,” said Jim Manley, a political strategist who has worked for several top-tier Democratic Party senators over the decades.

Biden needed to reassure loyalists, as well as try to persuade the small but critical number of independent voters in swing states, that he is still mentally and physically fit to lead the nation.

Speaking initially in a soft and hoarse voice, Biden came off as incoherent at times, appeared confused, lost his train of thought and verbally stumbled during his 90 minutes at the lectern opposite Trump, who was more articulate and less combative than usual, although the former president uttered many more untruthful declarations than Biden.

“The most salient detail of the evening was Biden’s tone of voice, which was faltering and not strong. It was his inability to come up with easy-to-follow coherent answers to questions, and he did that half the time, but half the time he didn’t, and in a number of cases he lost his train of thought,” Michael Kimmage, professor of history at The Catholic University of America in Washington, told VOA’s Ukrainian Service.

Biden’s campaign explained that the president had a cold. His performance suggested something more concerning as he stumbled over his words, corrected himself in mid-sentence and flubbed figures.

“There’s panic in the Democratic Party,” Maria Shriver, a prominent member of the Democratic Kennedy clan, said on social media, terming Biden’s performance “heartbreaking in many ways.”

Headlines in major U.S. newspapers on Friday also mentioned panic and alarm among Democrats. Leading web news sites, notable officials in the party and at the White House, along with top donors, began pondering whether Biden could continue to lead the ticket.

“JOE BIDEN MUST DROP OUT,” proclaimed a Friday headline for the first-ever editorial posted by Raw Story, which calls itself the largest independent, progressive news site.

The few prominent Democrats who had previously publicly expressed concern about Biden’s clinical suitability for a second term had been chastised as “bedwetters” for their excessive worrying.

Washington woke up Friday to many more bedwetters.

“The bedwetters and nervous Nellies are going to demand that he step aside — but as of right now I don’t see that happening,” Manley told VOA.

Biden, until Thursday night, had been on course to accept, without any remaining challengers, his party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. That was cast in doubt after his poor performance in Atlanta on Thursday night during the debate hosted by CNN and carried live by some 20 other television networks in the United States.

Unless Biden voluntarily steps aside soon, there is virtually no chance of anyone successfully challenging him for the nomination at this stage.

The party faces a critical deadline on August 7, about two weeks before the traditional convention roll call vote. That is when the traditional bellwether Midwestern state of Ohio requires party candidates to be determined. It had been assumed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris would again be at the top of the Democrat’s ticket.

Ohio has long favored incumbent presidents seeking another term, but Trump was victorious there in the last two elections.

It has been exactly a century since the Democrats held a convention that was truly an open contest, nominating James W. Davis as their presidential candidate after more than 100 ballots. Davis, a rather obscure former congressman, lost the general election to Republican incumbent Calvin Coolidge in a landslide.

The last time there was significant drama at a Democratic Party convention was in 1968 in Chicago, months after President Lyndon Johnson dropped his reelection bid.

Division in the party grew after one of the leading contenders, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was nominated amid pandemonium inside and outside of the convention hall. Humphrey was defeated by Republican Richard Nixon in the general election.

Looking ahead to another possibly disruptive convention in Chicago, Democrats on Friday began speculating about who might step forward to try to replace Biden, if the president were to bow out. Besides Harris, among those on the short list are four state governors: California’s Gavin Newsom, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky’s Andy Beshear and North Carolina’s Roy Cooper.

All have been viewed as likely presidential primary contenders for the party in 2028.

Some Democrats are having none of it — at least not yet.

“Democrats are historically prone to panic, even though their presidential candidates normally fumble the first debate — Barack Obama in 2012 is a great example. The answer isn’t to replace Biden, but to take a very critical eye to what didn’t work about his debate prep,” veteran party strategist Max Burns told VOA.

“Biden is still the best messenger Democrats have for the message they are campaigning on, but there’s clearly work to be done. Their success in November will depend on their ability to honestly assess their weak spots and quickly course-correct,” added Burns, who runs Third Degrees Strategies, a strategic communications and consulting firm.

“I refuse to join the Democratic vultures on Biden’s shoulder after the debate,” Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, posted on social media on Friday morning. “No one knows more than me that a rough debate is not the sum total of the person and their record.”

Fetterman, a survivor of a stroke which compromised his speech processing capabilities, struggled on the debate stage two years ago before defeating his Republican opponent in the general election.

Biden’s physician in February declared him fit for duty, despite being treated for multiple medical conditions, non-valvular atrial fibrillation, hyperlipidemia, gastroesophageal reflux, seasonal allergies and sensory peripheral neuropathy of both feet. Dr. Kevin O’Conner also wrote that the president’s stiff gait and obstructive sleep apnea remained stable.

As a senator in the late 1980s, Biden was treated for two brain aneurysms.

The president, during a midnight visit to a Waffle House restaurant in Atlanta following his face-off with the 78-year-old Trump, was asked by a reporter how he thought he performed during the debate in which each candidate peppered the other with caustic remarks.

“I think we did well,” Biden responded.

He appears to be a lone voice making that assessment.

“I know I’m not a young man,” said a somewhat rejuvenated Biden at a Friday afternoon rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I don’t debate as well as I used to” but “I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”

Biden coughed occasionally, still showing the effects of what campaign officials said was a cold that affected his debate performance the previous evening. His remarks were interrupted several times by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Trump “is literally a threat for everything America stands for” and is motivated by revenge and retribution,” added Biden. “Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it.”

Trump is to hold his first post-debate rally mid-afternoon Friday at a large farm and nursery in Chesapeake, Virginia.
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Voters react to first presidential debate

On Thursday night, Americans across the country gathered to watch the first debate of the 2024 presidential campaign season. VOA’s Dora Mekouar has reaction from voters.
Camera: Genia Dulot, Angelina Bagdasaryan, Michael Eckels
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Biden, Trump clash in first presidential debate of 2024

US presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump had their first debate of this election cycle Thursday. From Atlanta, VOA’s Calla Yu has our story.
Camera: Yiyi Yang  
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Biden’s debate performance spurs Democratic panic about his ability to win

ATLANTA — Above all, Joe Biden ‘s allies wanted him to demonstrate strength and energy on the debate stage Thursday night to help put to rest questions about the 81-year-old Democrat’s physical and mental acuity.

But on the biggest stage in U.S. politics, Biden did not meet their modest expectations.

And by the end of the 90-minute showdown, the Democratic president’s allies — party strategists and rank-and-file voters alike — descended into panic following a debate performance punctuated by stumbles, uncomfortable pauses, and a quiet speaking style that was often difficult to understand.

Publicly and privately, Democrats questioned whether the party could or should replace him as the party’s presidential nominee against the 78-year-old former President Donald Trump this fall.

“I’m not the only one whose heart is breaking right now. There’s a lot of people who watched this tonight and felt terribly for Joe Biden,” former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill said on MSNBC. “I don’t know if things can be done to fix this.”

For now, the biggest question for Biden is whether the damage is permanent. Many voters have not yet tuned into an election that’s still more than four months away. The president and his allies are sitting on millions of dollars that have yet to be spent on advertising and swing-state infrastructure.

And there’s precedent for recovering from rough debate performances, including Barack Obama ‘s rebound from an uneven encounter with Mitt Romney in 2012. Democrat John Fetterman went on to defeat a Republican rival in 2022 after struggling through a debate several months after experiencing a stroke.

Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign has been based on a gamble that voters would ultimately support an 81-year-old lifelong politician with weak approval ratings in a rematch that few Americans want. Despite such liabilities, Biden’s team insisted that he was uniquely positioned to stop Trump from returning to the White House — just as he did four years ago.

They have long predicted that Biden’s winning political coalition would eventually embrace the Democratic president after being sufficiently reminded of Trump’s chaotic leadership. But there were little signs of such confidence in the wake of Biden’s underwhelming debate performance.

“It was a slow start. That’s obvious to everyone. I’m not going to debate that point,” Vice President Kamala Harris said on CNN after the debate. “I’m talking about the choice in November. I’m talking about one of the most important elections in our collective lifetime.”

Biden’s surrogates were slow to enter the post-debate spin room in Atlanta. And when they emerged, they largely avoided questions from the press. Instead, they railed against Trump’s long list of falsehoods during the debate. Among other things, Trump didn’t disavow those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential future presidential candidate who was Biden’s most prominent surrogate in the Atlanta spin room, urged Democrats not to panic.

“I think it’s unhelpful. And I think it’s unnecessary. We’ve got to go in, we’ve got to keep our heads high,” Newsom said in an interview on MSNBC. “We’ve got to have the back of this president. You don’t turn back because of one performance. What kind of party does that?”

Still, signs of anxiety were apparent as Democrats began to openly encourage the party to find an alternative to Biden. Some party officials pointed to a social media post from former Obama campaign aide Ravi Gupta.

“Every Democrat I know is texting that this is bad,” Gupta wrote on X. “Just say it publicly and begin the hard work of creating space in the convention for a selection process. I’ll vote for a corpse over Trump, but this is a suicide mission.”

Under current Democratic Party rules, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace Biden as the party’s nominee without his cooperation or without the party officials being willing to rewrite its rules at the August national convention.

The president won the overwhelming majority of Democratic delegates during the state-by-state primary process. And party rules state that, “Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.”

Republicans, meanwhile, were giddy about Biden’s lackluster performance. But Trump co-campaign chief dismissed chatter about whether Democrats would try to nominate someone other than Biden.

“There’s so many political experts on X, so we’ll hear a lot from them, I’m sure, in the next few days because they’ve all run so many campaigns,” Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita said sarcastically. “But the only way that happens is if Joe Biden voluntarily steps down, and he’s not going to do that.”

Thursday’s debate may be imprinted on voters’ minds for the foreseeable future with Biden and Trump not scheduled to meet on the debate stage again for another 75 days.
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Biden, Trump blame each other over immigration issues

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CNN bans White House pool reporters from debate room 

washington — The White House Correspondents’ Association said Thursday that CNN had rejected multiple requests to include White House pool reporters inside the studio during the first presidential debate between incumbent Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump. 

The press pool, made up of representatives of major news organizations, accompanies the president on foreign and domestic trips and normally has access to any event where he speaks or appears in public, with the goal of keeping the U.S. public informed. 

It is extremely rare for it to be barred from an event in the United States. 

“WHCA is deeply concerned that CNN has rejected our repeated requests to include the White House travel pool inside the studio,” Kelly O’Donnell, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said in a statement. 

“The pool is there for the ‘what ifs?’ in a world where the unexpected does happen,” she said, and to provide “context and insight by direct observation and not through the lens of the television production.” 

These reporters are there to see what is said and done when the microphones and cameras are off, and provide independent observation, she wrote, with duties “separate from the production of the debate as a news event.” 

O’Donnell said both the Biden and Trump campaigns agreed to the WHCA’s request. 

CNN has agreed to allow only one White House print pool reporter to enter the studio during a commercial break to “briefly observe the setting.” 

The network will also allow still photographers from other outlets to cover the candidates inside the studio and will provide a television feed of the debate to other networks. 

CNN has put in place many other rules for the first showdown, including two commercial breaks, no props and muted microphones except when the candidates are recognized to speak. The network did not respond to a request for comment. 

“Precedent matters for future debates,” O’Donnell said, alluding to the next Biden-Trump face-off in September. 

The National Association of Black Journalists also asked CNN to accredit reporters from local Black-owned news organizations, after none of Atlanta’s Black news groups got credentials to be on-site for the debate.
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Live Blog: Biden-Trump Debate

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Front-runners emerge in contest for Trump vice president

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Famous US presidential debate moments

Public debates between presidential candidates have become a mainstay of American elections, though this wasn’t always the case. Sometimes amusing and sometimes shocking, presidential debates have been full of key moments shaping the way the public perceives the candidates and the issues.
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Biden, Trump set to debate in Atlanta 

U.S. presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump face off in their first debate of this election cycle Thursday. From Atlanta, VOA’s Calla Yu tells us what to expect. Contributor: Scott Stearns; Videographer: Yiyi Yang
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Biden, Trump to square off in 90-minute presidential debate

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Ahead of Thursday presidential debate, a look back to 2020

The first debate of the 2024 U.S. presidential election takes place on Thursday. But it isn’t the candidates’ first time debated each other. VOA’s senior Washington correspondent, Carolyn Presutti, looks back to 2020 for some clues about what we will see and hear in the debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
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