Biden holds a defiant rally in Wisconsin to make clear he’s not stepping aside

MADISON, Wisconsin — President Joe Biden on Friday defended himself against mounting criticism over his age and mental acuity in a campaign appearance in Wisconsin, defiantly saying he won’t step down as the Democratic nominee and asking Americans to hold up his age against his legislative accomplishments and agenda.

Biden asked supporters if he was “too old” to relieve student debt, appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court and sign climate laws. He also challenged the questions around whether he can continue to do so in a second term, when he would be 82 years old on Inauguration Day.

“What do you think? You think I’m too old to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land? You think I’m too old to ban assault weapons again? To protect social security and Medicare?” Biden said to a raucous crowd. “You think I’m too old to beat Donald Trump? I can hardly wait.”

Biden’s hastily announced rally here came at a deeply precarious moment for the incumbent’s reelection efforts. In the eight days since the presidential debate — during which Biden repeatedly lost his train of thought, stumbled with his words and left his mouth agape — a handful of elected Democrats have already publicly asked Biden to step aside or consider doing so . Even more are privately raising concerns.

Prior to last week’s debate, Biden deflected questions about his age with humor. And while he continued to do so on Friday — Biden twice said he looked 40 years old — he tackled the issue head-on and compared it with his record in a much more forceful way.

Biden appeared energetic and focused during the 17-minute public speech with teleprompters at a middle school in the battleground state. He appeared before about 1,000 people at the rally and an overflow room, according to the campaign. But later Friday, he is expected to go through another, perhaps more difficult test: an unscripted interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News.

And Biden wasn’t without his fumbles on Friday. Biden tripped up when he said “I’ll beat [Donald Trump] again in 2020,” and then corrected himself to say, “by the way, we’re going to do it again in ’24.” Just ahead of the speech, a man standing behind Biden held up a sign saying “Pass the torch, Joe.”

Despite Biden’s public attempts to restore confidence, Democrats are growing restless. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) plans to convene a group of senators on Monday to discuss Biden’s viability . And Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts, a high-profile supporter, said Biden should “ carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump .”

Biden told reporters Healey didn’t say anything while he was in a meeting with the Democratic governors at the White House this week. He also said he’s spoken to “at least 20” members of Congress since the debate and dismissed a question about Warner wanting him to step aside as being “the only one.” In fact, at least two other members of Congress have publicly called for Biden to forgo the nomination.

Biden also took a sharper crack at Trump’s character on Friday, tying the former president’s felony convictions to the recent Supreme Court decision that granted near-immunity to presidents in their official acts.

“Trump has failed” character tests on whether he would be truthful, respectful and nonviolent, Biden said. “What’s worse, the Supreme Court ruled there are virtually no limits on the power of the presidency.”

“For over two centuries, America has been a free democratic nation. And I'll be damned if in the year 2024, just two years before our 250th anniversary of a nation, I'll let Donald Trump take this away,” he added.

Before the debate, polls showed Biden running neck-and-neck with Trump in Wisconsin , a key battleground state Trump won in 2016 but ceded to Biden in 2020. But since the debate, national surveys show the presumptive GOP nominee opening up a lead .

In interviews with about a dozen attendees at the campaign rally in deep-blue Madison, many said they were with Biden, though cracks emerged. Richard TenHoor, 77, who canvassed for Biden in Milwaukee, said he thinks Biden should step down but worried the replacement process would be “complicated.”

Another Milwaukee canvasser, Sue Tomen, 67, said she trusted Biden to make the right decision. “He has chosen very competent people to surround him. I trust that, because of that, he’s still a better choice and will do fine in the next term,” she said.

More than a half-dozen people interviewed after Biden’s speech praised his performance and dismissed panic about the president’s age and abilities. Marilyn McDole, 75, of Oregon, Wisconsin, called it “the best” presidential speaking event she’s attended. “He’s got a lot of energy, spunk and gall,” she said. “I didn’t notice any real issues.”

Biden left the stage to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”