President Joe Biden on Friday, speaking at a campaign rally in the key battleground state of Wisconsin, said he would remain in the presidential race in 2024 despite concerns over his dismal performance in last week’s debate, and expressed confidence he could defeat former President Donald Trump.
“You all know I had a little debate last week. I wouldn’t say it was my best performance, but since then there’s been a lot of speculation: ‘What is Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? Is he going to pull out? What is he going to do?’ Well, here’s my answer: I’m going to run and I’m going to win again,” Biden said in front of cheering supporters in Madison, the state capital.
Biden said people are trying to remove him from the race.
“Let me be very clear: I’m still running! I’m going to beat Donald Trump!” Biden said.
Biden initially said he would beat Trump again in 2020, then appeared to correct himself, saying, “I intend to win again in 2024.”
“I learned a long time ago that you can get knocked down and still get back up,” he said, adding that he had no intention of erasing the accomplishments of the past three and a half years in a 90-minute debate.
Despite calls for Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, Democratic allies say he needs to campaign more vigorously to prove he can carry out a second term, and party members and donors will tune in to speeches like Friday’s to gauge his fitness to be president.
Biden began his speech by mocking Trump’s flubbing, pointing out that while he was president, Trump had said that George Washington’s troops won the American Revolutionary War by seizing the airport from the British on Independence Day, July 4th.
“They say I made a gaffe,” Biden said. “Airports and England in 1776. He’s certainly a stable genius.”
Biden also went head-to-head about his age, which polls show is a top concern for voters seeking reelection.
“Do you think I’m too old to reinstate Roe v. Wade nationwide? Do you think I’m too old to ban assault weapons again to protect Social Security and Medicare?” he asked in a series of call-and-response questions, to which the audience responded with a resounding “No!”
His final question was, “Do you think I’m too old to beat Donald Trump?”
After the audience chanted “No!” again, Biden added, “I can’t wait.”
Biden, 81, will finish his second term at age 86. At 78, Trump is roughly the same age as Biden, but polls suggest voters are more concerned about Biden’s age.
A New York Times/Siena poll conducted after the debate found that 74% of voters believe Biden is too old to serve as president.
During his speech, Biden attacked Trump using language he’d used in debates and on past campaign rallies, claiming the former president “has the moral code of a stray cat” and is a “one-man criminal.”
The Biden-Harris campaign touted the event as one in which the president will “highlight how important this election is to our democracy, our rights and freedoms, and our economy,” marking the president’s fifth visit to the state this year.
While in Madison, Biden will sit down for an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, which is scheduled to air Friday at 8 p.m. ET.
Asked by reporters after the interview whether he would withdraw, Biden said he “completely rules out the possibility of withdrawing.” He said he was “confident” he could serve another four years, adding that he had spoken to “at least 20” lawmakers who had urged him to continue in the race.
The president also said he was “absolutely committed now” to debating Trump again, the second of two scheduled presidential debates scheduled for September.
Following Biden’s widely panned debate performance last week, his campaign said it would be stepping up its general election activities throughout July, including “an aggressive travel schedule led by President Biden.”
The day after the June 27 debate, Biden held a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he was cheered on by enthusiastic supporters. Speaking in a more fiery tone than he had during the debate, Biden told the crowd, “I know I’m not young anymore. I can’t walk as easily as I used to, I can’t talk as smoothly as I used to, I can’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I know. I know how to tell the truth!”
According to the campaign, the president, Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Jill Biden and Vice President Doug Emhoff and his wife will be campaigning across the country this month, including in battleground states, to tout the administration’s accomplishments.
Biden is scheduled to speak at the NAACP and UnidosUS conferences in Las Vegas as the Republican National Convention takes place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from July 15 to 18. Harris is scheduled to speak at the 30th annual ESSENCE Cultural Festival in New Orleans on Saturday, her campaign announced.
The campaign also said it will invest in a $50 million paid media offensive this month, specifically targeting big audiences like the Republican National Convention and the 2024 Olympics, which begin on July 26.
