Joe Biden, facing pressure, fights back in Detroit: ‘We’re going to win’
- President Joe Biden defended his candidacy for a second term in Detroit amid intra-party concerns about his age, fitness for office
- ‘I am running, and we’re going to win,' said Biden, who is the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party
- Biden argued Donald Trump has gotten ‘a free pass’ over his own flaws
DETROIT — Amid questions over his fitness to remain in office, President Joe Biden delivered a fiery speech in Detroit on Friday evening, promising to remain in the race and insisting, “I am the nominee.”
“I am running, and we’re going to win,” Biden told a crowd of roughly 2,000 in Detroit’s Renaissance High School. “I’m the only Democrat or Republican who has beaten Donald Trump ever, and I’m going to beat him again …. When you get knocked down, you get back up.”
Biden’s visit to Detroit — a Democratic stronghold in a key battleground state — comes as he seeks to reassure a party shaken by his poor performance in a June 27 debate and quell concerns about his age and ability to take on former President Donald Trump a second time.
Biden supporters chanted “Don’t you quit” as the 81-year-old president took the stage in Detroit, and surrogates pushed back against suggestions he step aside, arguing his accomplishments warrant a second term.
“If you've been watching the news the last week, it seems like it's Joe Biden vs. everybody, doesn't it?” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said, referencing the “Detroit vs. Everybody” catch phrase coined when “it seemed like the whole world was against us.”
“Detroiters never forget (Biden) has been there for us,” he continued. “We’re gonna be there for him.”
Biden’s Detroit rally came one day after U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten of Michigan joined more than a dozen congressional Democrats who have so far called for Biden to leave the race to allow an alternative nominee.
Biden said that won’t happen, and throughout his speech, sought to shift the focus to Trump, who he called “a convicted criminal,” “a loser” and “a threat to this nation.”
“America needs to wake up and realize what Trump and his MAGA Republicans are trying to do,” he said, at one point suggesting another 2020-like effort to overturn election results would happen “over my dead body.”
Republicans dismissed Biden’s comments.
Michigan Republican Party Chair Pete Hoekstra, in a statement on the president’s visit, argued Biden has “failed Michiganders at every opportunity.” He also criticized the administration’s efforts to ramp up electric vehicle production.
Biden didn’t have everyone at his Detroit rally convinced either. His speech was briefly interrupted by a pro-Palestinian protester, who was escorted from the high school’s gymnasium by police.
"I understand her passion," Biden said of the protester, noting he is encouraging a peace deal in Gaza. "This war must end."
And outside Biden’s speech, Fenton resident Tom Moran held a homemade sign stating, “Pass the Torch, Joe.”
“I'm not voting for Joe Biden — I saw the debate, and he's just not up to the job,” Moran said, advocating for an open Democratic convention to select another candidate next month. “My fear is he's going to stay on the ticket, drag the other Democrats down.”
The ‘blue wall’
The Detroit rally marked Biden's fourth campaign event so far this year in Michigan, which remains a key focus in his bid to win a second term.
Biden controls all the necessary delegates to get the Democratic presidential nomination, having won them decisively during the primary campaign. That includes Michigan, where he secured at least 117 delegates after more than 625,000 voters backed him.
In a recent memo, top Biden campaign officials suggested the president still has multiple paths to victory in the general election, despite his deficit in many state and national polls.
Winning Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — the so-called "blue wall" states — "is the clearest path to that aim," the memo said.
In his speech, Biden attempted to move beyond recent Democratic infighting by repeatedly attacking Trump.
“Hopefully with age comes a little wisdom,” Biden said. “And here's what I know, I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how — and I've demonstrated how — to do this job. And I know Americans want a president, not a dictator."
Biden acknowledged that he "sometimes confuses" names, including Thursday, when he introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader who sparked an ongoing war between the countries.
But the president argued that Trump, 78, has "gotten a free pass" for similar mistakes, including once referring to former GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley as Nancy Pelosi.
Further, Trump "is a convicted criminal," Biden noted, referencing Trump’s recent conviction on 34 felony charges in a New York hush money case.
"Most importantly — I mean this from the bottom of my heart —Trump is a threat to this nation," Biden added, citing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who tried to overturn the election.
Excitement, trepidation
Deborah Sawicki of Clinton Township, who attended the rally, remains a staunch Biden supporter, telling Bridge Michigan she thinks that the president’s honesty and previous success against Trump are qualification enough to remain on the ticket.
“I’m sending prayers and the power of the Holy Spirit to help Joe remain president,” Sawicki said, noting she believes Biden is being treated unfairly.
Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist hit back against recent Democratic criticisms of Biden, telling rally goers that “some people are having a little too much fun going on TV and talking trash about our president.”
The race between Biden and Trump “is binary. It's black and white. It's two choices,” Gilchrist said, arguing that a Republican victory would be detrimental to people of color, the LGBTQ community and the environment.
“You're either with us or against us. You can be out here arguing on TV, or you can be in the streets going to work,” he continued.
Several Democratic dignitaries were noticeably absent from Friday’s roster — including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who reportedly had a previously scheduled conflict.
The second-term governor has called speculation about her being a potential Biden replacement a “distraction” and has stood by the president, though she recently told CNN it “wouldn’t hurt” if he took a cognitive test.
Several other Democrats joined Biden in Detroit, including state House Speaker Joe Tate and U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell of Ann Arbor, Shri Thanedar of Detroit, and Haley Stevens of Birmingham.
Biden lays out first 100 days
During his speech, Biden expressed support for abortion rights, saying that a top priority of his second term would be signing a bill to restore federal protections that ended in 2022 when conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“We're gonna stand up for women in America,” he said to applause.
Biden said he would support ending medical debt if elected to a second term, vowing to expand on his administration’s recent efforts to strip medical debt from consumer credit reports, and protect the Affordable Care Act, as well as look for additional cost savings for health care.
“My first hundred days in a second term will continue to be all about the working people,” he told the crowd.
Biden touched on his administration’s proposals to tamp down illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, hitting back against Trump’s claims in Michigan and elsewhere on the campaign trail that the president’s policies have been dangerous and ineffective.
He also said he’d sign proposed federal voting rights legislation championed by the late Congressman John Lewis and fight to raise the federal minimum wage, ban assault weapons, protect union workers and enact climate-friendly policies.
“This race is about your family,” Biden said. “It's about your freedom. It's about democracy. Are you with me?”
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