WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — President Joe Biden’s closest confidant is looking to quell Democratic panic following what even his own advisers said was a disastrous first presidential debate of the 2024 cycle against former President Donald Trump.
Speaking with Vogue magazine on Sunday, first lady Jill Biden said the family “will not let those 90 minutes define the four years he’s been president.”
“We will continue to fight,” the first lady told the magazine, adding that Biden “will always do what’s best for the country.”
“Every campaign is important, and every campaign is hard,” the first lady noted. “But this one, the urgency is different. We know what’s at stake. Joe is asking the American people to come together to draw a line in the sand against all this vitriol.”
There were moments during last week’s debate when Biden appeared to lose his train of thought, and even his top advisers and supporters acknowledged the president rambled.
At a certain point, former President Donald Trump quipped: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Sunday that Biden’s debate performance is “a big problem” that has prompted “very honest and serious and rigorous conversations” at every level within the Democratic Party.
In the aftermath, Biden admitted that the debate did not go well.
At a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, he said: “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 promised that he “would not be running again if I did not believe with all my heart and soul that I can do this job.”
Jill Biden also addressed the president’s performance while at a New York fundraiser, recognizing, “I know it’s on your minds.”
“After last night’s debate, he said, ‘You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great,’” Jill Biden told donors before unleashing an energetic defense of the president.
“What my husband does know how to do is tell the truth,” she continued as the room erupted into applause. “When Joe gets knocked down, Joe gets back up. And that’s what we’re doing today.”
Subsequently, the Biden campaign announced Sunday that it had raised more than $33 million since the debate on Thursday, including $26 million from grassroots donors. Nearly half of the grassroots donations “were from first-time donors to the campaign this cycle,” according to his team.