A Newly Energized Joe Biden Addresses The Elephant In The Room

At a rally in North Carolina on Friday, President Joe Biden brought the energy that Democrats were hoping to see at Thursday night’s catastrophic debate with former President Donald Trump.

Speaking in a clear, booming voice over a crowd of supporters, Biden acknowledged the elephant in the room: His stumble-filled debate performance alarmed voters, many of whom were already concerned about his age and cognitive health, and triggered mass panic in his party.

“I know I’m not a young man,” Biden, 81, said. “I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”

It was as clear an admission of failure as Biden’s supporters could ask for.

“I know, like many of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up,” the president said.

Biden also echoed what many of his surrogates emphasized Thursday night ― that Americans should be more concerned that Trump’s debate performance was packed with outright lies about his record on crime, the economy and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“My guess is he set ― I mean it sincerely ― a new record for the most lies told in a single debate,” Biden said.

“His biggest lie ― he lied about how he had nothing to do with the insurrection on January 6,” Biden continued. “We all saw with our own eyes. We watched it on television. We saw thousands, at his direction, attack the Capitol.”

However, it will likely take more than one energetic rally to undo the concern brought on by the debate, which took place in a closed studio without the usual live audience. Biden will get another