Former President Donald Trump is not known for his reserved comments about the weaknesses of his political opponents.
But after a debate in which a number of Democrats felt the performance of President Joe Biden so uneven and uncomfortable that he should do consider getting out In the presidential race just weeks before the Democratic National Convention, Trump is withdrawing from the plenary.
Speaking at a rally in Virginia on Friday, Trump said his complaints about Biden had nothing to do with his age, that the president had overprepared for the matchup and that at the end of the day, Biden was likely the toughest opponent he would face.
“He read so much he didn’t know what he was doing,” Trump, 78, said of his 81-year-old opponent, adding: “It’s not his age, it’s his ability.”
Trump added that he doesn’t believe Democrats will give up on Biden because he’s doing better in the polls than any of the Democrats they’ve talked to, pointing to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Vice President Kamala Harris and “some others.”
“It’s hard to believe, but Crooked Joe Biden polls better than these people,” he said.
It’s a departure from the rhetoric of Trump and his allies just weeks before. told WABC 770 AM he doubts Biden will “even be a candidate. I can’t even imagine it.”
Republicans have suggested for months that Biden, already the oldest president in the nation’s history, would not be on the ballot this fall. to spread conspiracy ttheory that democrats at the end of the campaign, they tried to replace him with Newsom or former First Lady Michelle Obama.
But after Biden’s speech on Thursday, Trump and his campaign advisers quickly sought to dispel suggestions that the president might not be their running mate this fall.
“Biden isn’t going anywhere,” senior Trump adviser Chris LaCivita told NBC News after the debate. “The only way Joe Biden will be kicked off the ticket is if he voluntarily decides not to do it, and he won’t.”
Clearly, the political considerations are at hand: Trump’s team now sees Biden as arguably the candidate they most want to face, especially as Democratic concern about Biden’s strength becomes public.
Trump adviser Brian Hughes told NBC News after the debate in Atlanta, “Democrats are in a complete mess. “They fear that they may have made a terrible mistake. I hope no one gets them off the hook. If they think they can get away with Joe Biden, it would be a level of dishonesty to call them out.”
Within 24 hours of Thursday’s debate, congressional Democrats and potential 2028 presidential candidates, including governments. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Newsom were with Harris, as was former President Barack Obama. But others were quick to praise Biden’s performance made it necessary stood up, or at least called for a serious discussion of the alternatives.
Finally, any decision to withdraw should have been done by Biden at this point. And he gave every indication that he will advance at a North Carolina rally on Friday.
“I’m not young” Biden said. “I don’t walk as easily as before. I don’t speak as easily as before. I don’t argue like I used to, but I know what I know – I know how to tell the truth! I know right from wrong. And I know how to do it.”
Biden reflected on his stumbles With Trump‘etc. false or false statements in the debate.
“When you fall, you get back up,” Biden shouted to the cheering crowd.
Brendan McPhillips, a senior adviser to Biden’s Pennsylvania team, echoed Trump’s comments.Black work” and his refusal to accept the election results will be a bigger deal than Biden’s lackluster performance, however much Democratic jitters spread in the immediate aftermath.
McPhillips campaigned in the Keystone State in 2022 when Democratic Sen. John Fetterman had a high-profile debate performance against Republican Mehmet Oz just weeks before the candidate suffered a stroke and won the battleground.
“And it turns out the voters didn’t care about that—” he said. “If anything, it has re-emphasized the risks. And I look at what’s going on now and I see a lot of the same things —. “I see a lot of people on Twitter, on the Internet or in the press making wild statements and trying to boost their reputation.”
Speaking to Fox NewsTrump went so far as to say that not only would Biden be the Democratic nominee, but that no other candidate would perform better against him.
“They couldn’t have done any better,” he said Friday. “No one else could have been better.”
Biden’s performance, though, worried at least one Trump adviser. The person described watching Biden and worried that the performance might be bad enough to knock Biden out of the race.
“It was the sum of all my fears,” said the consultant.