Obama defends Biden: ‘Bad debate nights happen’

Former President Barack Obama, who rebounded from a disastrous debate performance to win re-election in 2012, publicly endorsed President Biden after his poor performance in Thursday’s debate against former President Donald J. Trump.

Obama also sought to assuage concerns among Democrats about retaining Biden as their presidential candidate.

“Bad debate nights happen,” he says said in a social media post. ‘Believe me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary people his whole life and someone who only cares about himself.’

Obama continued, referring to Biden’s campaign website: “Last night didn’t change that, and that’s why the stakes are so high in November.”

Obama, who served as president for eight years with Biden as his vice president, played an important role in uniting the party behind Biden during the 2020 Democratic presidential elections. Now, fearing the consequences if Biden loses to Trump in November, he has Advised Biden’s team to help the president get re-elected.

The circumstances are somewhat different, but Obama faced a similar crisis of confidence in his 2012 re-election campaign. Obama underestimated his Republican opponent Mitt Romney and delivered a widely panned performance in the first presidential debate, with less than a month to go until Election Day.

The episode prompted a reassessment of Mr. Obama’s debate strategy. He returned to confront Mr. Romney twice on a more combative and assertive basis, easing a nervousness that had grown within the Democratic Party after he was blindsided in his first outing against Mr. Romney.

Obama wasn’t the only former president to throw his support behind Biden on Friday. In a statement, former President Bill Clinton vouched for the president and said further social media that Mr. Biden had given the United States three years of “solid leadership.”