An ebullient President Biden said he’s “not going anywhere” and that “Motown is Joe-town” as he courted Michigan voters late Friday, reaching truly comfortable terrain for the first time in three weeks after a disastrous debate performance raised doubts his candidacy.
“You the voters, you decided. And I’m not going anywhere,” he told a raucous crowd.
As an increasing chorus of Democrats in Congress call for his ouster from the ticket, Mr. Biden basked in the vocal support of the warm crowd in Detroit, the largest city in Michigan.
“Don’t you quit! Don’t you quit!” the crowd shouted.
While there are doubts in the Democratic Party, “there are still plenty of us who fully support our president,” said Pastor Cindy Rudolph, who introduced the president.
Taking the stage, Mr. Biden gave them what they wanted.
“I am running and I’m gonna win,” he said. “Donald Trump is a loser.”
For days Mr. Biden, 81, has insisted he will stay in the presidential race despite the turmoil sparked by his poor debate performance against Mr. Trump on June 27.
Michigan is a swing-state prize. It doles out 15 electoral votes.
Before his rally, Mr. Biden vowed to “finish the job” and made jokes about his age during a stop at Garage Grill and Fuel Bar in Northville, Michigan, to greet local supporters and volunteers.
“We were told we were going to lose in 2020. Remember? Well, we won,” Mr. Biden said.
The media, he said, “Say I’m naive, even though I’ve been around 270 years.”
Despite his confidence, Mr. Biden faces significant headwinds. Polls show majorities of Americans want him to step aside and let Vice President Kamala Harris or an alternative Democrat helm the ticket, citing doubts about his age and faculties.
Some congressional Democrats have rallied behind the president, yet his prospects dimmed when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week said it is up to Mr. Biden to decide his future, which was hardly an endorsement.
Actor George Clooney, who recently held a fundraiser for Mr. Biden, penned a cutting op-ed that called the president a dear friend but urged him to step aside for the good of the country.
Republicans ridiculed Mr. Biden ahead of his visit to Michigan, pointing to a Democratic lawmaker from the swing state who called on him to step down.
“Joe Biden is so unpopular that members of his own party want him out of the race – even Democrat Congresswoman Hillary Scholten thinks Biden is unfit to run the country,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said.
Yet Mr. Biden soaked up the warmth of the Detroit crowd, saying he appreciated the enthusiasm and would repay it.
He sputtered on words at times but largely avoided the type of verbal mistakes he made on the debate stage in Atlanta, and didn’t mix up key names as he did at a major press conference on Thursday.
“I sometimes confused names, I say that’s ‘Charlie’ instead of ‘Bill,’” Mr. Biden said. “But guess what, Donald Trump has gotten a free pass.”
He also dove into Mr. Trump’s legal troubles — an unusual foray for the president — outlining in detail the four indictments against Mr. Trump and a massive judgment against Mr. Trump for civil fraud in New York.
“Do you really want to go back to the chaos of Donald Trump as president?” Mr. Biden said, recounting how Mr. Trump seemed once to suggest that ingestion of bleach might kill the coronavirus.“I think he must have hit his head.”
Mr. Biden said he would never pardon the persons accused of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Mr. Trump has suggested. And the president spent a large portion of his Detroit speech attacking Project 2025, a policy document authored by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.
Mr. Biden said the blueprint would induce drastic overhauls to the civil service that could make federal employees more adherent to the president’s wishes. He also said the plan would decimate Head Start programs and erase plans to negotiate down the price of drugs under Medicare.
Mr. Trump has said Project 2025 is not part of his platform, but Democrats have presented it as his agenda, pointing to former Trump administration officials who are leading the project.
“It was a project built for Trump,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s time for us to stop treating politics like its entertainment and reality TV. Another four years of Donald Trump is deadly serious, deadly serious.”
Mr. Biden said he wants to restore abortion protections in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that extended a national right to abortion. The Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe, opening the door to state-based restrictions.
Mr. Biden also vowed to “end medical debt,” raise the federal minimum wage and ban military-style weapons.
Heading into the venue, Mr. Biden pledged to win Michigan, and took a shot on Mr. Trump’s recent habits.
“Trump doesn’t get out of his golf cart,” he said.
Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said Friday the race remains “close and unaffected by the debate.”
Mr. Tyler said their grassroots support remains strong and Mr. Trump seems unable to grow his base.
Polls show Mr. Trump leading Mr. Biden or tied with the incumbent president.
He says the litany of indictments against him are a Democratic plot to thwart his candidacy and that Mr. Biden has flubbed border security and failed to reduce consumer prices caused by inflation.
Posting on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said Friday that Mr. Biden should “take a Cognitive Test, and I will go with him, and take one also.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.