Biden campaign embraces his age as debate performance excuse – Washington Examiner

ATLANTA — When asked about his age and the rigors of the presidency, President Joe Biden has repeatedly told the public to watch him.

During the opening debate of the 2024 general election, more than 51 million people did that and what they saw has rattled the Democratic Party, regardless of the spin from Biden, the Biden campaign, and his supporters.

Biden, himself, told reporters after the debate during a stop at a Waffle House, where he bought campaign aides dinner, that he thought “did well.”

“It’s hard to debate a liar,” he said, adding he had “a sore throat.”

However, with Democrats uncertain regarding whether Biden should even be their nominee two months before the Democratic National Convention and five months before the election, the president conceded his performance was not good during a post-debate rally in North Carolina, specifically citing his age.

“Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to,” Biden read from a teleprompter Friday during his 20-minute prepared remarks, compared to his 90-minute debate the previous night without notes. “I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth.” 

“And I know like millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up,” he said.

That talking point that is more accepting of his age as a weakness has been amplified by Biden campaign aides and supporters, including first lady Jill Biden at a New York City fundraiser.

“As Joe said earlier today, he’s not a young man,” the first lady told donors Friday night.

The rhetorical shift can be contrasted to earlier in the day when Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison told the Washington Examiner that Democrats are “notoriously” known for hand-wringing when asked about party members advocating another standard-bearer. Harrison has notified card-carrying DNC members of a rare, last-minute call on Saturday afternoon.

“It’s not time to wring hands; it’s about rolling up your sleeves to do the work,” Harrison said during a Biden campaign press conference in Atlanta. “This election was always going to be close, and it’s going to be close. That means we got to put in the hard work and the efforts to make sure that we win this.”

To underscore his point, Joe Biden told other donors during his own fundraiser Friday night in New York City that he would not be seeking reelection if he “did not believe with all my heart and soul that I can do this job.”

For Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin, the Biden campaign’s original communications strategy was “not really clear” after it organized for supporters, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), to be in the spin room to take a couple of questions before leaving, a departure from the tradition, under which surrogates tend to stay and engage with reporters as long as they have questions. He also criticized the White House and Biden campaign for telling reporters the president had a cold during and not before the debate.

“Any time something goes poorly, whether it’s a company, an organization, a campaign, the best thing to do is you’ve got to get the most senior person out there, claim responsibility for it, and then lay out how you’re going to fix it,” Hankin told the Washington Examiner. “It feels like it should be better than, ‘I’m not as good as I used to be.’”

Hankin contended that Biden’s debate problem could be partly attributable to overpreparation, expressing exasperation since the president had “one job” and that was “to not look old.” He downplayed the likelihood of Biden being replaced as the ballot because of “logistics” and that it would have to be a decision the president makes.

“We’ve got to wait until next week to find out if this moved any voters or if this is just causing the usual bedwetting in the campaign world,” the strategist said. “I would expect we’re going to see Biden’s numbers drop a little over the next five, six days, not to Trump necessarily, but probably more towards third party going up a little bit and undecided going up a little bit.”

A Morning Consult post-debate poll published Friday found that Biden has not ceded immediate ground to Trump, with 45% supporting Biden and 44% Trump. But a 47% plurality of Democrats agreed Biden should step down as the party’s standard-bearer, in addition to 78% of debate watchers who perceived Biden as “too old,” in comparison to 64% of all respondents who were of the same opinion days before the head-to-head matchup.

Aboard Air Force One en route to New York City from North Carolina, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler tried to tamp down speculation concerning “conversations” with the president about stepping aside, that there would be any personnel changes within the campaign, and whether he was reconsidering the second debate in September. The campaign had an all-staff meeting Friday afternoon, but it was reportedly largely focused on improving morale.

“The president would not cite his sore throat as an excuse for the debate performance. He had a bad night,” Tyler said. “The strategy doesn’t change at all. Our strategy, as I just said, moving forward is to relentlessly communicate directly with the American people between June 28th and November.”

“The president himself has said it’s fair for the American people to consider age,” he added. “What’s clear is that age is not going to be the contrast in this race. Joe Biden is 81 years old. Donald Trump is 78 years old.”

But battleground Democrats, like Georgia state Sen. Sonya Halpern, are dealing with the consequences before an election in which Biden’s greatest opponents may be voter apathy and a lack of enthusiasm.

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“The age piece, it is something that we just, we cannot change on either one,” Halpern told the Washington Examiner. “No matter what your political affiliation, that is not inspiring people.”

“Politics, to some extent, is an elite sport,” she said. “We forget for people who are just going about their business every day, it doesn’t seem to involve politics. It takes a lot more work in order for them to pay attention. So how do we take advantage of this period of time between now and November to really get them paying attention and really thinking about the differences between the candidates?”