(CN) — It was night and day — literally — for President Joe Biden on Friday, as he delivered an animated and seemingly confident campaign speech just hours after a lackluster performance in the first presidential debate.
Washington was alight Thursday night after the president stumbled through his matchup with former President Donald Trump, spurring renewed debate among pundits and lawmakers about his age and mental acuity.
But, speaking to a crowd of supporters during a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday afternoon, Biden sought to reassure voters that he was up to another term in the White House.
“I know I’m not a young man,” the president said. “Let’s state the obvious. 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 what I do know — I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong.”
Biden stood firm in his candidacy despite suggestions from some that Democrats replace him with another contender before the party’s August convention.
“I give you my word as a Biden,” he said. “I would not be running again if I did not believe in my heart and soul that I can do this job.”
The president’s speech, though largely delivered from prepared remarks, was nonetheless in stark contrast with his performance at Thursday’s debate, where he appeared tired and often stumbled through his talking points.
On Friday, Biden’s demeanor more closely resembled that of his well-received State of the Union address earlier this year, as he quipped with the audience and laughed off hecklers. The president paused on several occasions to cough or clear his throat — his campaign said Thursday evening that he had been recovering from a cold.
But Biden’s remarks were not just limited to his debate performance. The president again laid out his vision for a second term, telling his supporters that if reelected he would continue to fight to protect voting rights and the Affordable Care Act, as well as address issues of gun control and immigration.
The president also vowed once again to restore the constitutional right to abortion stripped by the Supreme Court in 2022, telling the audience that his administration would restore abortion rights laid out in the case Roe v. Wade.
“I made it clear again last night,” he said, “that if you elect me and Kamala [Harris] and give us a Democratic Congress, we will make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again.”
Biden took aim at former President Donald Trump’s debate performance, accusing him of lying about his record and misrepresenting the current administration.
“My guess is, he set a new record for the most lies told in a single debate,” the president said.
The Trump administration left the country “flat on its back” amid the Covid-19 pandemic, said Biden, adding that the country had “come a long way from the mess that Donald Trump left us.” He noted his administration has created jobs and slashed unemployment.
Biden also doubled down on his contention that he was the only person standing between American democracy and a radically conservative second Trump administration.
“I’ll be damned that, if in the year 2024, two years before the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, I’ll let Donald Trump walk away from it,” the president said in a forceful moment that drew applause from the gathered crowd.
Biden blasted the former president for saying during Thursday’s debate that the U.S. is a “failing nation,” choosing instead to paint an optimistic picture of the country’s future.
“Where the hell does he think he is?” the president said incredulously. “We just have to remember who we are … there is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together.”
Following Thursday night’s debate, Republicans especially seized on Biden’s seemingly foggy performance, claiming that the president was no longer fit to serve in office.
During a news conference Friday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson addressed discussions around invoking the 25th Amendment on President Biden — the constitutional mechanism by which members of a White House cabinet can remove the president from office.
“They have a serious problem,” Johnson said of Democrats. “We have a president who, by all appearances, is not up to the task.”
The House speaker added that, were he in Biden’s cabinet, he would be having discussions about the president’s mental acuity and fitness for office.
It appears unlikely that Biden’s cabinet would ever actually take such action, especially just months before a presidential election and after a single debate.
Trump, meanwhile, is set to hold his first campaign event since Thursday’s debate on Friday afternoon.
Follow @BenjaminSWeiss
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