Trump Rips Biden’s Performance in First Post-Debate Rally
Tony Kinnett /
“The question every voter should be asking themselves today is not whether Joe Biden can survive a 90-minute debate performance, but whether America can survive four more years of ‘crooked Joe Biden’ in the White House.”
That was the main theme of former President Donald Trump’s first rally, held Friday in Chesapeake, Virginia, since the debate against President Joe Biden on Thursday night. A bipartisan bevy of news anchors and journalists, pundits, and politicians stormed social media and network TV after the debate, outlining what they called a disastrous physical performance by Biden.
Biden was accused of appearing “near-death” due to his freezing in mid-remarks, and criticized for suggesting that he “beat Medicare,” and for describing the necessity of abortion due to the prevalence of rapes by “sisters” and “in-laws.”
At a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Biden said of his debate performance: “I don’t walk as easily 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 how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job.”
“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 I can do this job,” Biden added, per The Washington Post.
Trump didn’t spend the majority of his Friday rally remarks discussing Biden’s age, however, but instead lambasted the policies of the Biden administration on the economy, immigration, climate change, abortion “up until the moment of birth,” and foreign policy.
“Joe Biden’s problem is not his age,” Trump told the crowd, “… it’s his competence.”
Trump mourned the death in Texas of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl who was brutally raped and killed, reportedly by two Venezuelan illegal immigrants, and accused Biden of having no idea who she was.
The former president tied the economy and illegal immigration together in his speech, suggesting that traditionally left-leaning black and Hispanic voters, as well as union members, were abandoning Biden because their jobs were going to illegal immigrants. He praised the working class and moderates, while criticizing the Biden administration’s policies on electric vehicles and “trillions of dollars in subsidies.”
Trump drew applause for drawing contrasts between the two administrations’ foreign policy records.
“I’m the only president in many decades that didn’t start a war—I finished one. I beat ISIS in record time.” He then cited the wars between Russia and Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas that began on Biden’s watch, and Biden’s widely criticized shambolic military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Trump mocked Biden for using the term “existential” to describe climate change, suggesting that “we’re all still waiting” for the predictions of extinction made by climate activists to come true.
Regarding the upcoming election, Trump encouraged unity among Republicans and support for conservative candidates in Virginia as well as the rest of the country. He particularly praised Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, in contrast to Youngkin’s Democratic predecessor, Ralph Northam.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican; young or old; black, brown, or white, we welcome you to our movement and ask for your help and your partnership in making America the strongest, most magnificent country again anywhere in the world,” he said.
Trump delineated the distinct divide between the two choices voters face in November:
“As every American saw firsthand last night, this election is a choice between strength and weakness, competence and incompetence, peace and prosperity or war.”
Trump also said he didn’t believe the rumors that Biden would be replaced as the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for president, stating that possible replacements such as Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom “don’t poll as well” as Biden.
The former president praised his campaign’s performance in polls in both swing states and nationally, where he leads Biden by several points, according to recent surveys by Rasmussen, The New York Times, and Quinnipiac.
“We were truly a united country, and I believe that we can be a very great country again,” he said.