President Joseph Biden traveled to Raleigh Friday alongside First Lady Jill Biden to garner support for the Biden-Harris campaign following a disappointing performance in Thursday’s presidential debate.
The Bidens appeared at the rally less than 24 hours after the Democratic president faced off against his Republican challenger, former president Donald Trump, in Atlanta in the first debate of the 2024 election cycle.
The Biden campaign hoped the debate would help assuage voters’ concerns about the 81-year-old’s mental capacity. Instead, Biden delivered a raspy, halting performance that left American voters underwhelmed and Democratic leadership alarmed — with some even calling for the president to be replaced as the nominee.
Biden and Trump are set to meet again at the podium Sept. 10 for the second and final presidential debate of the campaign, hosted this time by ABC News. Though no third-party candidates qualified for Thursday’s debate, they will have the opportunity to participate in the September event if they meet eligibility requirements.
Biden took the stage around 1:30 p.m. Friday for an energetic display at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds’ Jim Graham Building.
The rally was originally intended to build on the president’s momentum following Trump’s recent felony conviction and to gain traction in the swing state, where he was polling at 38.5% Wednesday. But after viewers largely reported favorable opinions of Trump’s debate performance despite many blatant falsehoods and exaggerations from the Republican candidate, the rally’s purpose shifted to an attempt at recovering lost ground.
“Folks, I give you my word as a Biden — I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul [that] I can do this job,” Biden said.
Rappers E-40 and Fat Joe opened the event with brief performances in front of hundreds of supporters. The president’s address was also preceded by welcome remarks from Harry Davis, regional organizing director for the North Carolina Democratic Party; Josh Stein, North Carolina attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial candidate; Gov. Roy Cooper; First Lady Jill Biden and Eric Fitts, the Wake County Public Schools administrator who previously hosted Biden for dinner in his home in Raleigh.
The opening speeches portrayed Biden as “a president with integrity,” contrasting the two candidates’ personal values in an attempt to reassure voters that Biden is the superior choice.
“Do we want a man of integrity who wakes up every morning thinking about what he can do for the American people, or do we want a convicted felon who wakes up every morning thinking about what he can do for himself?” Cooper asked the crowd.
Friday’s rally was just the latest stop by prominent Biden administration figures in North Carolina this year as the campaign seeks to secure the swing state’s 16 electoral votes. In April, the Biden-Harris team reportedly opened 10 new N.C. field offices, suggesting the campaign believes they can win the crucial swing state despite North Carolinian electors choosing the Republican candidate in all but one presidential election since 1980.
The campaign also hosted a number of events in North Carolina in the week leading up to Friday’s rally, which featured the First Lady and various congressional representatives and focused on reproductive rights and the economy.
“Joe has helped heal our country,” Jill Biden said. “… There is no one that I would rather have sitting in the Oval Office right now than my husband.”
The president addressed his less-than-inspiring showing in the debate, maintaining that his strong, reliable character trumps his shortcomings in delivery.
“I know I’m not a young man … I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he said. “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.”
The president harped on Trump’s tendency to spread misinformation, speculating that the former president “set a new record for the most lies told in a single debate” Thursday.
Both candidates spent a significant portion of the debate criticizing the other’s first term as president. The evening also devolved into personal character attacks, with Trump calling Biden “weak” and “a criminal” at various points. Biden later fired back, branding his opponent a “loser” and a “sucker” after alleging that Trump had used the terms to describe American veterans.
“He lied about the great economy he created. He lied about the pandemic he botched, killing millions of people. He closed businesses. He closed schools,” Biden said Friday. “America was flat on its back.”
Onstage in Raleigh, Biden took the opportunity to outline his policy goals and accomplishments in greater detail, seemingly far more at ease in front of the crowd of supporters than at the debate podium. He promised to codify Roe v. Wade and protect reproductive rights for American women, to refrain from raising taxes for those with an annual income below $400,000 and to pursue an economic strategy to bring down inflation that he boasted was approved by 16 Nobel laureates.
“The choice in this election is simple,” Biden said. “Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it.”
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Zoe Kolenovsky is a Trinity junior and news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.