The US president continues to stumble over his words while trying to salvage his reelection campaign
US President Joe Biden has made several radio interview appearances and delivered a brief Fourth of July speech in an apparent attempt to reassure Democrat supporters about his mental capacity to serve following a disastrous debate with his Republican rival Donald Trump.
Biden openly admitted he “screwed up” the debate with Trump, but told The Earl Ingram Show on Thursday that he will “get back up” and is going to “beat him again.”
“I had a bad night…. And the fact of the matter is that, you know, I screwed up,” Biden said, rejecting any intention of dropping out of the presidential race.
During a separate interview with Philadelphia’s WURD, the gaffe-prone US leader struggled to find the right phrase while apparently trying to refer to Vice President Kamala Harris and recall his time in Barack Obama’s administration.
“By the way, I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman… to serve with a black president. Proud to be involved of the first black woman on the Supreme Court. There’s so much that we can do because, look… we’re the United States of America,” Biden said.
The US president also delivered a four-minute speech at the White House, focusing his remarks on his visit last month to Normandy, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, but seemingly veered off script and lost the train of thought several times, and at one point even called his rival Trump a “colleague.”
“And by the way, you know I was in that WWI cemetery in France, and…. the one that one of our colleagues, the former president, did not wanna go and be up there… I shouldn’t probably have said it anyway,” Biden said before abruptly cutting the story short, and continuing his prepared remarks.
Concerns over whether the 81-year-old veteran politician can successfully handle the presidential campaign and four more years in the Oval Office were reignited after Biden delivered a shaky performance in a televised debate with Trump last Thursday. The incumbent appeared frail and seemingly lost his train of thought on multiple occasions, allowing his rival to comfortably come out on top by most accounts.
A post-debate Reuters/Ipsos poll found that one in three Democrats believe that Biden should quit, while some key donors have reportedly been looking at ways of replacing Biden with a stronger candidate on the 2024 ticket.
