Biden acknowledges weak debate performance as Democratic questions swirl over whether he’ll stay in the presidential race

President Joe Biden’s campaign insisted Friday he will not drop out of the 2024 race, but fractures between the president’s orbit insisting on trudging forward and the broader Democratic world seeking a last-minute change were growing after Biden’s disastrous debate performance.

President Joe Biden’s campaign insisted Friday he will not drop out of the 2024 race, but fractures between those in the president’s orbit insisting on trudging forward and the broader Democratic world seeking a last-minute change were growing after Biden’s disastrous debate performance. Biden acknowledged the weak performance while giving a much more animated speech in North Carolina on Friday, saying, “I know I’m not a young man. I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t talk 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. And I know how to do this job, I know how to get things done. And I know what millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up.” From the West Wing to Wilmington, Biden advisers spent Friday morning calling Democratic members of Congress, donors and other key supporters in hopes of allaying some of the widespread panic about the debate with former President Donald Trump on CNN Thursday night. Biden’s performance — rife with a raspy voice, an often mouth-agape facial expression and one painful moment in which the president lost his train of thought and suddenly stopped speaking — laid bare the potential political costs of nominating the oldest-ever president for a second term. Asked whether Biden would exit the race, Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster responded: “No.” “There’s no basis for that,” one Biden adviser also told CNN Friday morning. “There’s nothing that voters have indicated that they agree with that.”