As Biden Points to His Past, Supporters Are More Worried About His Future

As President Biden tries to save his candidacy, he is asking Americans to look to the past.

“Look at what I’ve done in three and a half years,” Mr. Biden has declared over and over again since his disastrous debate performance in Atlanta two weeks ago. On Thursday night, as the president took questions from reporters in a nearly hourlong news conference, he pointed to his record.

“Can you name me somebody,” he asked, “who’s gotten more major pieces of legislation passed in three and a half years?”

But for many of Mr. Biden’s supporters, it’s not the last three years they’re worried about. It’s the next four.

Interviews with a range of Democratic voters, lawmakers, strategists and others — most of whom voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 — suggest that the president’s attempt to run on his record since the debate is falling flat.

“This is not about the past. This is about the future,” said Representative Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat who has called for Mr. Biden to leave the race. “I love what Joe Biden has done in the past both in the White House and the Senate, but the question is whether he can beat Donald Trump going forward to November and of course whether he can serve another four years as a commander in chief.”

Mr. Biden is facing a crisis of confidence as he tries to neutralize questions about his fitness and end calls from some Democrats that he step aside from his campaign. But concerns have been growing: According to a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted after the debate, roughly 74 percent of voters agreed that Mr. Biden was too old to be an effective president.