Biden Surrogates Try To Spin A Disastrous Debate Performance

ATLANTA — President Joe Biden’s top campaign surrogates had the unenviable task of spinning his weak debate performance against Donald Trump to the media immediately after Thursday night’s event.

They argued that Biden’s debate showing should be judged by the substance of his message and not the style of its messenger. But it was a tough sell, given that Biden gave rambling answers, mixed up numbers and launched into confusing tangents that obscured the message that Democrats hoped he would more clearly deliver in the first 2024 presidential debate.

“I would never turn my back on President Biden, and I don’t know a Democrat in my party that would do so, especially after tonight,” Newsom told reporters after the debate as questions were shouted at him about whether he regretted not seeking the Democratic presidential nomination himself. “We have his back… We’re going to double down in the next few months. We’re going to win this election.”

Newsom was once considered a top contender for the 2024 Democratic nomination if perhaps Biden opted not to run. But Newsom has turned into one of the Biden campaign’s most effective and visible surrogates.

Newsom and half a dozen other Biden cheerleaders were mobbed by reporters after the debate, arriving as a single unit following a stream of Trump surrogates who worked the room individually. Biden’s team included Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).

“I would be concerned if the president didn’t have a record to run on,” Warnock told reporters. “This is a man that’s passed historic legislation here in the state of Georgia.”

Mary Trump, the former president’s niece who has been outspoken against her uncle, said