President Biden tried to minimize concerns about his fitness for office, saying he would not be running if he didn’t think he was up to the job.
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President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden at a campaign rally in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday.
President Biden on Friday delivered one of the most forceful performances of his campaign, acknowledging that he doesn’t “debate as well as I used to” but firing up a crowd of thousands of supporters by furiously accusing former President Donald J. Trump of being a “one-man crime wave.”
Speaking to a large and boisterous crowd, Mr. Biden, 81, tried to beat back a chorus of doubters that emerged following a devastating debate against Mr. Trump the night before, when he appeared disjointed and unclear.
On Friday, he was once again the fierce and loud-spoken campaigner that many had doubted still existed. He directly confronted questions about his age, saying that “I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious.”
But he sought to minimize concerns about his own fitness for office, saying he would never run for re-election if he didn’t think he was up to the job. And he repeatedly sought to cast the election as a choice between right and wrong, morality and criminality, an honest man and a convicted criminal.
“I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to,” he said to roars of approval from the crowd in a fairgrounds hanger. “But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”
Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent for The New York Times, covering President Biden and his administration. He has reported on politics for more than 30 years. More about Michael D. Shear
Maya King is a politics reporter covering the Southeast, based in Atlanta. She covers campaigns, elections and movements in the American South, as well as national trends relating to Black voters and young people. More about Maya King
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Source: nytimes.com
