President Joe Biden’s top allies defended him on several news programs on Sunday, admitting the president was insubordinate. debate performance but claims to remain the strongest challenger to former President Donald Trump in the general election.
“I think he’s the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump,” Biden campaign co-chairman Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told ABC News’ “This Week.” “And let me tell you, we had the best fundraising day since the debate.”
Biden campaign on Sunday he said after the debate, it raised $33 million, of which $26 million came from local donations. Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn on Saturday also pointed out Campaign fundraising numbers during a panel on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.” He argued that voters liked Biden’s focus on the issues in the debate more than Trump’s rhetoric and personality.
“The reality is that I think voters experienced this debate a little differently than maybe some insiders,” Dunn said. On Sunday, Coons also emphasized the campaign’s position with voters after the debate.
“The first poll we saw after the debate showed Joe Biden leading against Donald Trump. “I understand there’s been a lot of hand-wringing and anxiety and pearl-clutching among the comments — that’s great, that’s to be expected,” Coons said.
While some Biden campaign staff acknowledged his massive support, they also cited internal daily polling that reflected Biden’s performance on debate night.
“The president is the first person to say it wasn’t his best night,” Biden campaign contributor Molly Murphy said in an interview on “With Jen Psaki.” “We see it in our surveys. This is something we see.”
“What they also took away from the debate is that the majority of people who watched the debate felt that the president was talking about issues that they care about,” he said.
Asked whether Biden’s advisers and the campaign bore any responsibility for the performance, Coons also acknowledged that Biden had a “poor debate” but argued that Trump’s baseless claims were a “terrible” performance.
Acting House Speaker D-Calif. Rep. Nancy Pelosi made a similar reference to Trump when she acknowledged that Biden had a “bad night” on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
asked him to answer late–June CBS News/YouGov poll showed that 72% of voters do not believe Biden has the mental or cognitive health to serve as president, with a margin of error of 4.2%, Pelosi tried to draw a stark contrast between Biden and Trump.
“Well, what do they think of the other guy? Do they think that after that performance, he has the honor to be the president?” Pelosi said with reference to Trump. “Let’s not decide the presidency in one debate.”
“It’s not about performance in terms of a debate, it’s about a presidential performance,” he said. “And I want you to know that actually the reaction to Donald Trump’s lies is something that doesn’t get the attention of TV, but people do. And having an argument where you have to spend half your time denying what he says because he knows nothing but the truth. There is integrity on one side of the screen. There is dishonesty on the other side.”
Another Biden ally, Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-C., said the president’s “dismal performance” during the debate did not reflect his presidential record.
“I always say that the best predictor of future behavior is past performance, and when we look at the past performance of these two people at the front and their partners, we get a lot of indicators of what their future behavior will be like. “,” Clyburn said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “So Joe Biden needs to keep working on that record.”
Asked if he understood why some Democrats and independents who were not interested in voting for Trump were still not interested in voting for Biden after the debate, Clyburn said he would tell them to consider Biden’s presidential record.
Clyburn argued that Biden should stay in the race amid calls for him to step aside, arguing that the president had to fight Trump’s false claims during the debate because of predetermined rules.
“The guy told about 30 odd lies and no one checked him and said it was Joe Biden’s fault,” he said.
The strong defense from Biden’s top allies comes after his debate performance Serious concerns within the Democratic Partywith some congressional Democrats and regional editorial boards urges the president to leave out of the presidential race and allow a younger candidate to run in his place.
However, the Biden campaign did makes efforts to assure that the president isn’t going anywhere and is focused on next steps after a dismal debate performance. A senior administration official told NBC News that during multiple discussions with Biden’s top aides and advisers, one key message came through: “As always, we will weather the storm.”