“Dhear my word. I wouldn’t run again if I didn’t believe, with all my heart and all my soul, that I can do this job,” the President of the United States told his supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina, a state he “intends to win.”
Biden’s statements follow a performance widely criticized by analysts in a debate against his Republican rival, Donald Trump, on Thursday night, the first between them before the November elections.
“I’m in North Carolina for a reason, because I intend to win this state in November. If we win here, we win the election,” added the head of state, at a time when the number of voices within his own party advocating the need to consider an alternative candidate is increasing.
In a huge crowd, in which supporters constantly interrupted Biden’s speech to ask for “four more years” of the Democrat in power, the President tried to silence the fear awakened in his ranks, defending his suitability for the position.
At 81 years old, Biden admitted some loss in his abilities due to age, but defended his fitness.
“I know how to tell the truth. I know how to do my job. Obviously I know I’m not a young man,” he said.
Even Biden’s advisors acknowledged his poor performance in the debate with Trump, although they assured that he will continue with his candidacy until the end.
“I think (Biden) had a tough night, there’s no doubt about that,” Mitch Landrieu, the US President’s campaign manager, told CNN, before noting that Biden’s defeat was cosmetic rather than practical.
“He may have lost in style, but he won in the field of facts and in the area of decency”, he argued.
At the campaign event in North Carolina, the head of state reinforced that in the November 5 elections it will be democracy that goes to the polls: “Donald Trump will destroy democracy. I will defend it. (…) Are we going to let Trump attack our democracy again? I don’t think so,” he stressed.
Biden took advantage of the stage to emphasize that in Thursday’s confrontation, which took place at the CNN studio in Atlanta, the Republican politician “broke a new record for lies in a single debate.”
According to a survey conducted by CNN, Trump made around 30 false statements throughout the debate, compared to nine from Biden, who suffered from voice problems, incoherent answers and verbal lapses.
Biden has a six-point deficit over Trump in the average of polls conducted in North Carolina, and if the debate negatively affects the Democrat’s voting intentions, the margin would be a statistical abyss.
The issue of the candidates’ ages – especially Biden’s 81 years – has been in the spotlight in recent months, with the current head of state frequently the target of mockery from his 78-year-old opponent.
Biden, who is the oldest sitting President in American history, had the challenge of demonstrating during the debate his physical and mental capacity to defeat Trump and lead the country for another four years.
However, the task proved difficult, with Trump remaining restrained and unperturbed, but who resorted to false statements several times throughout the debate.
Following the debate, Donald Trump today mocked Biden’s stumbles and mistakes in a video to question his ability to continue governing the country and reinforce his own image as the winner in the first presidential debate.
After North Carolina, Joe Biden heads to New York, where he will turn his attention to LGBT voters (acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) at two events.
Even before the debate, Biden has been trying to shore up support within this Democratic-leaning community after losing ground with Black and Latino adults and other demographic groups that helped elect him in 2020 and whose strong support he needs to win reelection in November.
[Notícia atualizada às 19h52]
Read Also: Analysts see Biden’s defeat in the debate but deny Trump’s victory
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2589014/biden-admite-nao-debater-tao-bem-como-antes-mas-diz-se-apto-para-presidencia
