U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the grand opening ceremony of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center on June 28, 2024, in New York.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
The Biden campaign raised $27 million from the day of the first presidential debate through Friday night, a campaign spokesman said. Announced Saturday.
The figures come amid a post-debate fundraiser for President Joe Biden, as his campaign tries to match former President Donald Trump’s recent donation surge.
The Biden campaign, the Democratic National Convention and Biden’s campaign PAC and committees collectively raised $85 million in May, but that was still far short of the $141 million that former President Trump raised in the same month he was convicted of 34 felony counts.
Post-debate campaigning has sought to reassure donors that Biden can deliver a Democratic victory in November, despite his missteps in the first debate with Trump on Thursday.
After a fiery 90 minutes in Atlanta, Biden headed to Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday for a rally where he struck a more energetic tone and acknowledged his debate gaffes.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I can no longer walk as easily as I used to, speak as fluently as I used to, or debate as well as I used to, but I know what I know: I know how to tell the truth,” he said.
After his visit to North Carolina, the president flew to New York, where he gave a speech marking Pride Month at the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center. Later that evening, the president held several campaign receptions.
Biden is scheduled to attend more campaign receptions in New York and New Jersey on Saturday before returning to Camp David later in the evening. Those events are likely to push his $27 million fundraising figure even higher.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how much of the new fundraising came from online grassroots donors versus big-money donors.
Since Thursday’s intense 90-minute battle, Democrats have been scrambling to clean up the mess left by Biden’s debate fiasco.
Biden’s allies, including former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, have tried to redirect the debate by acknowledging rather than ignoring his presidential debate gaffes and asking voters to ignore them.
But some Democratic strategists are calling on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race and cede his delegates to a new candidate.
Biden and Trump are scheduled to debate again on Sept. 10, which could be a chance for the president to redeem himself among voters, many of whom have expressed concerns about his age and ability to handle a second term.
