The High-Energy Biden Missing At Thursday Night's Debate Shows Up In North Carolina

Just hours after a disastrous debate performance that led to immediate calls to abandon his reelection campaign, President Joe Biden on Friday made clear that he had no intention of dropping out.

Biden held to a schedule that had been planned ahead of time, delivering a high-energy speech at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, before continuing on to New York City for a Friday night fundraiser, with three other fundraisers planned for Long Island and New Jersey on Saturday.

One Biden campaign official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had a two-word answer to the calls that he step aside: “Absolutely not.”

Biden did not address the issue directly at his rally, but referenced it after conceding that Thursday night’s CNN debate with former President Donald Trump had not gone well.

“I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up,” he said to raucous cheers.

Indeed, Biden’s frequent stumbles in the 90-minute televised encounter also stood in sharp contrast to far more energetic remarks delivered at a campaign watch party barely an hour later in Atlanta. Before heading to the airport for the short flight to North Carolina, Biden made a midnight visit to an area Waffle House, where he told reporters, “It’s hard to debate a liar.”

Bu that rationale did not explain how, when confronted with the same wall of lies from Trump at their first debate in 2020, Biden had managed to counter them with relative ease. Observers generally saw him as the hands-down winner of that event.

It also didn’t explain why Biden fumbled when asked about the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt at the debate Thursday night, when he failed to point out that the U.S. Capitol attack, instigated by Trump, included violent