'Biden is our Democratic nominee:' Allies close ranks behind president after debate fiasco

ATLANTA – Joe Biden's shaky debate performance on Thursday left Democrats scrambling to defend the president, with his strongest backers defiant amid concerns it could sink his campaign.

Swarmed by reporters on the spin room floor, Biden surrogates batted away suggestions the president should step aside or risk delivering another term to former President Donald Trump.

“Absolutely not - have his back 100%, firmly,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, adding: “I would never turn my back... I do not know one Democrat that would do that.”

As for whether he'd accept the Democratic nomination at an open Democratic National Convention, Newsom offered a pointed statement. “Joe Biden is our Democratic nominee," he said.

Some grassroots supporters seem to agree. According to Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. EDT "was the campaign's best grassroots fundraising hour since launch, besting its two record-breaking hours earlier this evening. All in all, June 27 was our best grassroots fundraising day since launch."

Focus on policy, not performance

Biden went into the debate looking to quell questions about his age and fitness for a second term. Instead, he only inflamed them. Democrats panicked. Trump backers gloated.

"It was probably the greatest political debate win I've ever seen," said Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita.

The contrast in debate performances was evident in the number of surrogates eager to defend each candidate afterward, with Republicans far outnumbering Democrats in post-debate spin room ritual.

Democrats huddled together in one corner. Republicans fanned out across the carpet-clad arena on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Biden's backers were unified in their message: it's the substance of Biden's arguments that should count.

“I would be concerned if the president didn’t have a record to run on, but the fact of the matter is that this is man who has passed historic legislation," Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said.

Former Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond, a former White House official who serves as co-chair of Biden's campaign, ducked a question about whether the Biden campaign thinks the debate went well for their candidate.

He said of Democratic handwringing, "This is a marathon, it's not a sprint. And on substance the president performed very well. Donald Trump lied for 90 minutes. And you don't reward people for that."

"I've heard a lot about the performance, and I would recommend that everybody focus on the substance," said Mary Trump, Donald Trump's niece, a sharp critic of her uncle and a Biden surrogate. "We have two candidates for the presidency. One of them is an inveterate liar who doesn't care about this country. The other one cares about America, he cares about democracy. He has dug this country out of a hole because his predecessor is a traitor. That's what we need to focus on."

Biden's surrogates left the spin room floor as Trump's backers continued to revel in Biden’s poor performance.

“Nothing changed tonight, quite the contrary, [Biden] won on the substance. That’s what matters at the end of the day, people want substance,” Newsom said, driving the campaign line, as he walked off.

A rocky start to an important night for Biden

Thursday’s debate was especially crucial for Biden, who is losing in most swing states, according to polling averages.

His voice hoarse − from a cold, according to the campaign − Biden struggled at times to find the words he wanted, while Trump mostly kept his cool.

Trump calmly twisted the knife after the president’s verbal gaffes. When Biden struggled to finish his thought after a question on immigration, Trump fired back: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, I don’t think he knows what he said either.”

Early on, Biden had an especially awkward few moments where he seemed to lose his train of thought.

Decrying what he considers a low tax rate for billionaires, Biden said if they paid more, it would help finance child care and elder care before he trailed off. He stammered for several moments before saying, “We finally beat Medicare."

“He did beat Medicare, he beat it to death,” Trump responded.

Biden, 81 was already batting perceptions about his fitness for the job.

“He’s not equipped to be president, you know it and I know it. It’s ridiculous,” Trump said at one point Thursday.

Biden's debate performance was widely panned, including in his party. It overshadowed some of his sharper jabs at Trump.

“How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public, for doing a whole range of things, of having sex with a porn star while your wife was pregnant?” Biden said, referring to a civil lawsuit where Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and the allegation at the root of Trump's recent 34-count felony conviction.

“You have the morals of an alley cat,” Biden added.

Biden made character a central argument of his attacks on Trump throughout the debate.

Biden also called his predecessor in the Oval Office a sucker and a loser, turning around insults Trump reportedly made about veterans.

It was the earliest clash between the parties' standards bearers in modern history – before either had been formally declared the nominee. They did not shake hands at the start of the debate, a sign of how contentious the rivalry has become.

“The worst presidency in the history of our country,” Trump said of Biden's time in office.

“Every single thing he said is a lie, every single one,” Biden charged.

The bitter debate foreshadowed what is certain to be one of the ugliest campaigns in memory, with attention turning next to the party conventions.

Republicans will spin their narrative in July; Democrats will get the last word in August. Trump and Biden are scheduled to debate once more in September.

At a watch party in Atlanta of his supporters, Biden suggested he'd do the second debate. "Let's keep going. See you at the next one," he said in brief remarks.

Democrats outside the campaign fret

Democrats who aren't formal surrogates for the campaign were less optimistic in their depiction of the debate outcome.

Former Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill said on MSNBC that Biden’s surrogates “have to focus on the positive,” but she had a much less rosy view of Biden’s performance.

“My job now is to be really honest,” she said. “Joe Biden had one thing he had to do tonight and he didn’t do it. He had one thing he had to accomplish, and that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age and he failed at that tonight. Now does that mean that my phone blowing up with senators and campaign operatives and donors, big donors from all over the country, does that mean that Joe Biden is not going to be the candidate? I don’t know that. I think we’ll know a lot more in a few weeks how this plays out, how the polling plays out.”

"There is more than hand wringing tonight, I do think people feel like that we are confronting a crisis," McCaskill added.

Campaigning across the South

In Atlanta, the candidates previewed the themes they’ll be hammering for the next four months, starting with appearances in neighboring East Coast states on Friday.

Trump is holding a rally in Virginia, which Biden won by 10 points in 2020. Biden is hitting up North Carolina, a state that Trump won by 1.3 points.

Each sees an opportunity to expand the electoral map and is mobilizing resources. Trump’s campaign says it’s opening 11 new offices in Virginia. The Biden campaign says it’s increasing its staff in North Carolina.

Florida Rep Byron Donalds, R-S.C., told USA TODAY on the spin room floor prior to the clash that Trump was smart to go to Virginia and Biden has a chance to win North Carolina.

“Virginia has been inching closer and closer to being in play,” the Trump surrogate said. “North Carolina is always a tough state. Republicans, we find a way to eke it out, but it's always a tough state. You got to battle it out.”

In the latest FiveThirtyEight polling average, Trump had a slight edge of less than 1 percentage point – well within the margin of error. His four indictments for myriad alleged crimes and felony convictions for falsifying business records haven’t moved the needle as much as Biden’s campaign might have hoped.

The Democratic president used the debate stage to put them back in the spotlight, with Trump repeating his unfounded claims that his charges are political persecution orchestrated by his rival.

A tight race

Ahead of the debate, Trump was slightly ahead, on average, in every key swing state, other than Wisconsin. Biden’s campaign said prior to Biden's debate performance that it did not expect the sparring match to make a significant difference.

But with Biden's age on voters' minds already, his debate mishaps could resonate, potentially tilting the direction of the race.

Both campaigns have been building huge war chests to blanket the airwaves in the coming months.

Biden had a formidable stockpile of cash of $212 million at the end of May between his campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

But Trump has been catching up in fundraising, raising $56 million more than Biden in May between his campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Their campaigns unveiled new ads Thursday in advance of the debate.

Trump took aim at Biden’s record on the economy, Afghanistan, immigration – and Biden's fitness for office.

The Biden campaign warned about the dangers of a second Trump term.

One of the Biden ads highlights a social media post by Trump saying that “termination” of the Constitution was called for because of his unfounded election fraud claims.

“The Democratic Party is 100% and going to be 100% behind Joe Biden, period,” California U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia said Thursday after the debate. “I want to remind folks of one important thing: There is one person in our country that has beat Donald Trump. His name is Joe Biden.”

Contributing: Maya Homan

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democratic allies vow support for Joe Biden in wake of debate disaster