What to know after Biden and Trump's first debate
- President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are back on the trail today after facing off in their first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle.
- Biden delivered an energetic speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, defending himself after his poor performance in last night's debate. He also gave brief remarks in New York commemorating the Stonewall Inn.
- Some Democrats expressed concern about his ability to remain on the ticket following several major stumbles. The New York Times editorial board published an opinion piece tonight calling on Biden to drop out.
- Trump, whose debate performance was littered with falsehoods and misleading claims, spoke at a campaign rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, where he didn't waste any time mocking Biden's debate performance.
- The Supreme Court released three major decisions this morning, including a Jan. 6 case that Trump praised.
DNC spokesperson calls NYT editorial 'laughable'
A spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee hit back at the New York Times editorial board tonight over its op-ed saying Biden should end his re-election bid.
"It's laughable," said spokesperson Abhi Rahman.
The Biden campaign dismissed the op-ed earlier tonight.
Biden speaks at last campaign event of busy post-debate day
Biden delivered remarks tonight at a New York fundraiser, capping a day of campaigning as he attempts to rebound from last night’s debate performance.
"When you get knocked down, you get back up," Biden said, repeating a phrase he used at a campaign rally earlier in the day.
Biden also poked fun at his age, but said that it gave him the ability to get things done and tell the truth. "This is a nation that believes in honesty,” he said.
Before the fundraiser, Biden held a rally in North Carolina and delivered remarks at the opening ceremony for the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center in New York.
The Biden and Trump campaigns were hoping to appeal to Black voters in the first debate, but some expressed disappointment in both candidates after the faceoff. NBC News’ Shaquille Brewster reports.
First lady recounts conversation with Biden about the debate
In front of a New York fundraising audience this evening, first lady Jill Biden recounted a conversation she had with her husband after last night's debate.
"As Joe said earlier today, he’s not a young man," she said. "And you know, after last night’s debate, he said, ‘You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great.’"
The first lady said that she responded by saying, ‘Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president.’”
The Supreme Court’s Jan. 6 ruling is expected to ripple through rioters’ cases but not necessarily Trump’s
The Supreme Court’s ruling Friday in favor of a Jan. 6 defendant charged with obstruction of an official proceeding quickly triggered activity in other Capitol rioter cases to revisit that charge, but it’s unlikely to derail former President Donald Trump’s federal election interference case.
Justice Department officials and attorneys for Jan. 6 defendants said that the court’s 6-3 ruling in the case involving former Pennsylvania police officer Joseph Fischer would not have an immediate effect on most of the 1,000-plus convictions secured by prosecutors.
Despite Biden’s dismal debate performance, abortion care providers remain resolute
Proponents of abortion rights were dumbfounded by Biden’s vague and sometimes incoherent messages on abortion access during last night’s debate, especially when he declined to rebuke Trump’s false claims that Democrats are in favor of killing babies.
“The debate was a disaster,” said Dr. Warren Hern, director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic in Colorado. “It’s going to be hard to recover from this.”
The debate should have been a layup for people in favor of abortion rights. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, touted the fact that he nominated three anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court while in office from 2017 to 2021. As a result, the constitutional right to an abortion was overturned in 2022, leaving states in charge of whether to allow women to terminate a pregnancy and at what stage.
Joh Fetterman responds to The New York Times' op-ed: 'f--- that'
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., slammed The New York Times' editorial board's opinion piece urging the president to drop out of the 2024 race.
His message on X was just two words: "f--- that."
Fetterman has been a stalwart supporter of Biden.
Democratic National Committee touts grassroots organizing around debate
Biden's allies are touting grassroots organizing and fundraising figures from debate night in a memo first shared with NBC News.
The memo, co-written by Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler and Democratic National Committee communications director Rosemary Boeglin, highlighted the days ahead of the debate as "mobilizing hundreds of thousands of grassroots supports online and off."
They said that the Biden campaign and its allies organized 436 watch parties across the country, leading to more than 12,000 in-person attendees in battleground states.
Tyler and Boeglin also pointed to supporters signing up for "more than 1,500 volunteer shifts for our weekend of action in the battleground states." The campaign and allies also made nearly 1 million texts and calls to voters in battlegrounds, the memo said.
"While Republicans are in disarray and the Trump campaign continues to neglect crucial constituencies on the ground, the Biden-Harris campaign and Democrats across the country are not taking a single opportunity to engage voters for granted," the memo said. "That’s how we’ll win in November."
Georgia Democrats worry for Biden but still plan to vote for him
Anne Fayssoux, 71, couldn't believe the Biden at the podium was the same one she saw deliver a rousing State of the Union address mere months earlier. At the debate's conclusion, she said she felt "sad, anxious and upset."
"I think he’s deteriorated since his State of the Union speech that went so well. They did say that he had a cold. But he seemed a little more disabled than just someone with a cold," Fayssoux told NBC News.
Even after noting Biden's numerous slip-ups she doubled down that Biden would receive her vote: "No, there’s no way in heaven and earth that would vote for someone who tried to overthrow our government on January 6th," she said. "I’d vote for Biden 100%."
Another traditionally Democratic voter, Andrew Rose, 50, was more critical of Biden and the debate as a whole.
"Oh, I was so disappointed in Biden. He was hoarse. He was pale. He looked really frail," Rose said. "And, I mean, Trump just lied through his teeth the entire time. It was a disaster, start to finish, both sides."
Rose said that calls to have Biden step aside for another Democrat were uncalled for and continues to have "confidence" in the president to continue his campaign.
"I think he’ll be okay," Rose said. "Just last night was just not a good look for him, but I think he’ll be okay."
Rose added that in the second face-off between Biden and Trump, he hopes the president will "play up" Trump's convicted felon status.
Democrats in swing-state Michigan divided over Biden's fitness
Democratic voters in Dearborn, Michigan, are split on whether Biden should step aside in order for the Democratic Party to nominate another candidate after a stumbling debate night.
Rashad Asoufy said it was “surprising to see the decline in Biden’s health due to his age.”
“Ideally, I would like him to step down and have someone else be the Democratic ticket,” Asoufy told NBC News. “But if he’s all we have, I would still stick with Biden because the alternative is not really good for this country because it kind of threatens our democracy.”
Jennifer Ganem, 59, thinks it is too late for Biden to step aside.
“I think that we need to stay the course at this point of the process,” she said.
While Ganem described Biden’s performance as “sad,” she said, “We are voting for that leader, but we also need to remember we’re voting for all the people around our president, somebody who can bring together a good team, and former President Trump did not prove that he could do that.”
On the other hand, Marsha Brazil, a 71-year-old from Dearborn, is adamant that Biden should not step aside.
“Biden has the experience. Why would you want to — did they want to replace Trump? Look at all the things — he’s a convicted felon,” she said.
Brazil added that “the Democrats need to get together and stick with what they got and try to improve them with what they have instead of trying to replace it. You don’t replace nothing like that.”
Brazil described the debate as “horrible” because “Trump lied when he first opened up his mouth.”
“Biden was trying to tell the truth, but by him being a stutterer and having problem speaking properly, and having a cold, he had a problem delivering his points because he was trying to fact-check Trump on everything,” she added.