American President Joe Biden returns to the campaign on Friday, with the difficult task of correcting the situation after a presidential debate which turned, at least in form, to the advantage of his Republican rival Donald Trump.
The 81-year-old Democrat had, on Thursday evening, headed to North Carolina, for a meeting in this South-Eastern state which he believes he can overturn in his favor in November and where he will be accompanied by his wife Jill Biden.
He then went to raise funds in New York and then in the Hamptons, a very chic resort area not far away.
His 78-year-old rival will be in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Friday. According to his campaign team, Donald Trump will explain how to “reverse the effects of the failed presidency” of Mr. Biden, whose victory in 2020 he never accepted.
If Joe Biden was hoping to gain momentum at Thursday night’s rally in Atlanta, by all accounts the pundits are saying he missed the mark.
During a sometimes frankly angry confrontation, the Democrat tried to push his opponent to his limits and to praise his record as well as his vision of America.
But his remarks often fell flat, due to his particularly muddled delivery that brought concerns about his age to the forefront, including within the Democratic Party.
Vice President Kamala Harris herself acknowledged that Joe Biden had a “laborious” start to the debate, but felt that he had finished “strongly.”
A candidate “capable of winning”
A German official responsible for bilateral cooperation with the United States within the government in Berlin, Michael Link, even invited Democrats to reconsider Mr. Biden’s candidacy during their party conference in mid-August.
The Democrats need a candidate “capable of winning” and must ask themselves “who is best placed to prevent Trump from returning to power,” added Mr. Link, interviewed by the daily Tagesspiegel.
The Democrat’s supporters want to believe, at least publicly, that by November the Americans will forget this poor performance in form, to rally, in the words of the president of his campaign team Jen O’Malley Dillon, to ” the positive and victorious vision of the democrat for the future.
The octogenarian president will obviously not be the only one at work.
Kamala Harris, 59, sent to the front on Thursday evening to limit the damage after the debate, is going to Nevada on Friday, a state which will be hotly contested in November and where Joe Biden’s running mate will make her fifth visit since the start of the year.
The Democrat, who is campaigning vigorously across the country, will seek to “highlight the issues at stake in the election for Hispanic voters,” according to a statement.
The American president can even count – so to speak – on the help of a Jedi.
Mark Hamill, actor who played Luke Skywalker in the films Star Warsand a staunch supporter of the Democratic candidate, wrote on X: “One failed evening doesn’t change the fact that the guy from before is a repeat offender, a serial liar and a convicted rapist who is not competent for any office. Period.”