(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said he was being unfairly targeted for his verbal miscues and vowed to “shine a spotlight” on Republican Donald Trump and his agenda, as the Democrat looked to pivot away from a debate performance that badly damaged his campaign.
“It’s going to be all about Trump from here on out,” Biden told supporters in Detroit in the swing state of Michigan.
Biden delivered a refreshed stump speech Friday evening that included an outline of his planned first 100 days in a second term and some of the bluntest attacks on Trump’s legal troubles to date to a boisterous crowd that met him with a chant of “Don’t you quit!” He reiterated his intention to stay in the race.
“I am running, and we’re going to win. I’m not going to change that,” the president said.
Biden went after the “Project 2025” blueprint put forward by Trump backers that calls for mass deportations, socially conservative policies, slashing federal agencies and politicizing the civil service. Biden, 81, accused the news media of covering concerns about his age at the expense of Trump’s plans, and of ignoring the former president’s flubs.
“No more free passes,” Biden said.
The president cast Trump as a “loser” who sought to overturn his 2020 election loss and wants to act as a dictator in a second term, vowing that would only happen “over my dead body.”
Still, the president felt compelled to allay voter concerns about his fitness for office, amid growing calls from fellow Democrats to exit the race.
“I promise you, I’m OK,” Biden told a crowd gathered at a Detroit restaurant before the event.
Biden’s efforts to address one of his biggest political liabilities underscored the extent to which questions over his age continue to dominate the national political conversation, even as he’s eager to focus on Trump’s policy plans.
He took on party figures demanding he drop out, saying they were subverting the will of Democratic primary voters.
“You made me the nominee, no one else, not the press, not the pundits, not the insiders, not donors. You the voters; you decided, no one else, and I’m not going anywhere,” Biden said.
The president said he would offer a bill to restore nationwide abortion rights as his first act in a second term. He said he would follow with measures to protect entitlement programs, raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations and ban assault weapons.
Biden’s trip is his latest attempt to rescue his reelection campaign, which has come under siege from a growing number of fellow Democrats who have called on him to step aside. It’s part of a travel blitz over the next week intended to demonstrate he has the stamina to lead the country for another four years.
Biden remains determined to stay in the race, despite a calamitous debate performance and high-profile gaffes that have hardened perceptions that he is too old to be president. His defiance has demoralized party members who want him to stand down in favor of a younger nominee.
The president’s choice of venue only served to highlight that divide. Biden appeared at the same Detroit school where in 2020, he stood beside Kamala Harris and other Democratic rising stars and called himself the “bridge” to the party’s next generation of leaders.
“What changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited in terms of the economy, our foreign policy and domestic division,” Biden said at a July 11 news conference when asked why he did not follow through. “That’s the other reason why I didn’t, as you say, hand off to another generation. I’ve got to finish this job.”
Biden and his aides have been working feverishly since the June 27 debate to persuade lawmakers, donors and voters that he is capable of defeating Trump in November and leading the US.
The slew of meetings, rallies and interviews — as well as Biden’s first solo news conference of the year — has not been enough to quell fears about his acuity and fitness for office. California Representative Mike Levin on a private call earlier Friday between Biden and Hispanic lawmakers directly challenged the president to withdraw, according to people familiar with the exchange. Levin afterward issued a statement calling on Biden to step down as the nominee.
The president plans to soldier on. He’s expected to sit for an interview on Monday with NBC News that will air in prime-time after marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act in Texas. He’ll then travel to Las Vegas to speak to two of the nation’s foremost Black and Latino advocacy groups.
BET News said it’s airing a prime-time interview with Biden on July 17, allowing him to “speak directly to Black America.”
Biden won backing from Senator Bernie Sanders, one of his 2020 primary opponents, in a New York Times guest article on Saturday. While citing policy disagreements and the president’s “disastrous” debate performance, the Vermont independent said Biden “may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate.”
Biden made his problems worse on July 11 by confusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with Russian President Vladimir Putin while on stage with the former at the NATO summit, then mixing up Harris with Trump at his news conference. Those gaffes overshadowed what European leaders had said was a strong performance from Biden at the gathering.
So far, 19 Democratic lawmakers have publicly called for Biden to end his presidential campaign, including three who did so almost immediately after the press conference. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the most influential Democrats, has declined to offer a full-throated endorsement to Biden’s reelection bid, saying the decision whether to remain in the race is the president’s.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Biden on Thursday evening to share “the full breadth” of lawmakers’ views “about the path forward” for his campaign, according to a letter to colleagues. The White House confirmed the meeting, but declined to comment on details of the conversation.
--With assistance from Josh Wingrove.
(Updates with planned BET interview in 21st paragraph, Sanders article in 22nd paragraph.)
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