Biden addresses poor debate performance, attacks Trump at Raleigh rally

MICHELLE STODDART and IVAN PEREIRA

28 June 2024 at 2:09 pm·3-min read

President Joe Biden on Friday addressed his poor performance in Thursday's presidential debate, just hours after he faltered on stage in his matchup against former President Donald Trump.

A senior campaign aide told ABC News that the president is "absolutely" not considering dropping out of the race after stumbling with answers and is committed to a second debate. During the rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, a more energetic-appearing Biden acknowledged that he's not a young man, but contended that his morals and history prove that he's still fit for the job.

PHOTO: President Joe Biden holds a post-debate rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 28, 2024. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

MORE: 5 takeaways from striking Biden-Trump presidential debate

"Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but ... I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong, and I know how to do this job," he told the roaring crowd. "I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up."

The crowd constantly shouted "Four more years," during the event which also included remarks from first lady Jill Biden

Biden spent much of the rally pointing out what he called Trump's false claims during the debate about the economy, immigration and crime.

"I spent 90 minutes on stage debating a guy with the morals of an alley cat," Biden said repeating a zinger from the debate. "I think he set a new record for the number of lies told at a debate."

Biden dug in further bringing up Trump's conviction in a New York criminal court and pending criminal and civil trials.

PHOTO: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrive for a post-debate rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 28, 2024. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

"Donald Trump isn't just a convicted felon. Donald Trump is a one-man crime wave," the president said.

MORE: Fact checking the Biden-Trump presidential debate

Biden also reiterated that Trump helped to end abortion rights for women across the country and contended that the former president and "MAGA Republicans" would push forward a national abortion ban.

"I made it clear last night you reelect me and Kamala [Harris] we will make Roe v. Wade the law of the land," he said.

Jill Biden, who wore a dress with the word "vote" written all over it, also defended his performance.

"What you saw last night on the debate stage was Joe Biden, a president with integrity and character who told the truth," she said. "And Donald Trump told lie after lie after lie."

PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 28, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

Biden told reporters immediately after the debate that he had a sore throat and didn't have concerns about his performance.

MORE: Next Biden-Trump presidential debate will be in September on ABC

"It's hard to debate a liar," he said.

When the president and first lady landed in Raleigh early Friday morning they were greeted at the tarmac by prominent North Carolina Democrats, including State Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue, and about 250 supporters.

Biden spent time speaking with the supporters and took photos with them before he left the airport.

PHOTO: First lady Jill Biden speaks during a U.S. President Joe Biden's rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 28, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

Following the Raleigh rally, the president was headed to New York City to deliver remarks at the grand opening ceremony of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, the first LGBTQIA+ visitor center within the National Park system.

MORE: Biden's shaky debate panics Democrats, Republicans celebrate Trump: ANALYSIS

Biden will end his day with a closed-door campaign reception in New York.

ABC News' MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report.

Biden addresses poor debate performance, attacks Trump at Raleigh rally originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

HuffPost UK
Trevor Phillips Destroys Nigel Farage With One Devastating Question
The Reform UK leader rejected the accusation that his party is a home for racists.
The Telegraph
Democrats creating path for Joe Biden to make ‘dignified’ exit
Democrats are laying the groundwork for Joe Biden to make a “dignified” exit from the presidential race.
HuffPost UK
Rishi Sunak Left Squirming As He's Confronted With Ordinary People's Lives In Tory Britain
The prime minister had insisted life was "better" now than when the party came to power in 2010.
The Telegraph
Old, rich and living on benefits: welcome to the state pension capital of Britain
East Preston feels an unlikely stronghold of benefits dependency. The genteel village on the West Sussex coast might be the closest thing that Britain has to a moneyed pensioner utopia.
The Independent
Led by Donkeys interrupt Nigel Farage speech by lowering huge Putin banner
Nigel Farage was initially unaware that the Russian president was on the poster, with the words ‘I heart Nigel’ written below
The Telegraph
Labour vote share falls to lowest in more than two years
Labour’s vote share has fallen to its lowest level in more than two years ahead of the general election, new polling shows.
CNN
Russia wants to confront NATO but dares not fight it on the battlefield – so it’s waging a hybrid war instead
When someone tried – and failed – to burn down a bus garage in Prague earlier this month, the unsuccessful arson attack didn’t draw much attention. Until, that is, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala revealed it was “very likely” that Moscow was behind it.
The Telegraph
A Labour landslide would leave the UK unrecognisable
Until now, Sir Keir Starmer has carefully hidden the Labour Party’s radical, hard-Left agenda from the public. But on the brink of the largest majority in nearly a century, his mask has slipped.
The Guardian
‘Disbelief’ as US-UK trade deals under threat after Britain axes negotiators
Business community decries ‘act of arson’ as one-seventh of trade posts within British consulates in the US are scrapped
CNN
A year ago, she drank battery acid to escape life under the Taliban. Today, she has a message for other Afghan girls
Arzo survived a suicide attempt but now faces a new threat that could send her family – and millions like them – back to Afghanistan and a life that has become so intolerable for women and girls that some would rather die.
Associated Press
A private call of top Democrats fuels more insider anger about Biden's debate performance
A sense of concern is growing inside the top ranks of the Democratic Party that leaders of Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee are not taking seriously enough the impact of the president’s troubling debate performance earlier in the week. DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez held a Saturday afternoon call with dozens of committee members across the country, a group of some of the most influential members of the party.
The Telegraph
How do you get rid of a dictator? Here are some tips
In an age when dictators and authoritarian regimes are all the rage, it becomes all the more imperative for peace-loving democrats to consider ways of getting rid of them. Yet on some happy – albeit rare – occasions, the more repellent members of the dictatorial species, by dint of incompetence or arrogance, manage to do the job themselves.
The Telegraph
‘Trillion dollar trainwreck’: US super stealth fighter is eating the next generation
All of a sudden, the US Air Force is considering cancelling a multibillion-dollar effort to develop a new stealth fighter. Citing the high cost of the so-called “Next-Generation Air Dominance” programme and the competing demands of other projects, USAF leaders have warned they may have no choice but to cancel NGAD – and find other ways of winning control of the air in future wars.
The Telegraph
Tory Remainers are the authors of their party’s defeat
The oddity of European politics is that Britain is moving sharply to the Left while most of the Continent is moving even further to the Right. In Britain, young people and even the middle aged are abandoning Conservatism. Elsewhere in Europe, the young are the pillars of a radical Right-wing upsurge. On the Continent, the cause is largely frustration with the consequences of being in the EU. In Britain, it is largely a backlash against being out of it.
Manchester Evening News
'My mortgage has doubled... the country's gone to pot': The Greater Manchester neighbourhood where people want change
'I was born and bred here... I've never known the place be as big of a dump as it is'
The Telegraph
Why the French state pension is about to bring down Macron
Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reforms have loomed over his second presidential term – and could now be his undoing.
The Telegraph
The Conservatives are paying the terrible price for Britain’s lockdown amnesia
On Tuesday, the BBC led with a report about personal protective equipment (PPE) worth nearly £1.5 billion going unused. It was, we were told in scandalised tones, rotting away in warehouses.
PA Media: UK News
Rishi Sunak: I’ll still be Prime Minister on Friday
The Conservative leader defended his party’s record in government against what he described as a ‘declinist narrative’.
Evening Standard
Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally ahead after first round of French voting
The far right party are in the lead after the first round, according to exit polls.
HuffPost
Trump Uses 'Palestinian' As A Slur For The Second Time In A Week
The GOP presidential frontrunner referred to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is Jewish, as a "Palestinian" during a rally on Friday.

Latest stories