Biden appeals to donors as concerns persist over debate performance

US President Joe Biden is looking to recapture his mojo and reassure donors that he is fully up to the challenge of beating Donald Trump.

The 81-year-old’s troubling performance at the first presidential debate rattled many Democrats, who see Mr Trump as an existential threat to US democracy after the January 6 2021 insurrection.

Mr Biden’s meandering answers and his struggles to respond to Mr Trump prompted The New York Times editorial board to declare on Friday that he should exit the race, and that staying in would be a “reckless gamble”.

The President and his wife, Jill, plan to attend an afternoon campaign meeting in East Hampton, New York, the Long Island beach town where the real estate firm Zillow prices the median home at 1.9 million dollars (£1.5 million).

The event, which was closed to the news media, was listed as taking place at the home of Avram Glazer, an owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team and part of the Glazer family who own Manchester United.

The couple then went to a second event in East Hampton at the home of investor Barry Rosenstein, whose wife, Lizanne, said the president was “a role model for what it is to get knocked down over and over and over again and get up”.

“We can waste time comparing debate nights,” she continued. “But you know what? It’s more meaningful to compare presidencies.”

Addressing the gathering, Mr Biden quickly tore into Mr Trump over his presidential record including his treatment of veterans and said of Thursday night’s debate: “I didn’t have a great night, but neither did Trump.”

Mr Biden contended that the polling he’s seen shows that Democrats moved up after the debate, saying of Trump: “The big takeaway was his lies.”

Scheduled later is an evening fundraiser in Red Bank, New Jersey.

In the aftermath of Thursday night’s debate, Mr Biden showed more vigour in speeches in North Carolina and New York on Friday, saying he believes with “all my heart and soul” that he can do the job of the presidency.

The Biden campaign said it has raised more than 27 million dollars (£21.3 million) on Thursday and Friday, including three million dollars (£2.3 million) at a New York City fundraiser focused on the LGBTQ+ community.

Jill Biden told supporters on Friday that he said to her after the debate: “You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great.”

The first lady then said she responded to him: “Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been President.”

The Democratic President still needs to allay the fears stirred by the debate as it seeped into the public consciousness, with clips and memes spreading on the internet, as well as public pressure for him to bow out of the race.

Democratic donors across New York, Southern California and Silicon Valley privately expressed deep concerns about the viability of Mr Biden’s campaign in the wake of his debate performance.

In a series of text message chains and private conversations, they discussed the short list of possible replacements, a group that included Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, California governor Gavin Newsom and vice president Kamala Harris.

But on Friday, there was no formal push to pressure Mr Biden to step aside and some suspected there never would be, given the logistical challenges associated with replacing the presumptive nominee just four months before Election Day.

Some donors noted they were going to pause their personal giving.

They said receipts from Mr Biden’s weekend fundraiser would almost certainly be strong because the tickets were sold and paid for before the debate.