President Joe Biden will return to Michigan on Friday, the campaign announced in a press release Sunday night, as he tries to recover from his first debate of 2024 against Republican Donald Trump.
Biden, the incumbent Democrat, will visit Detroit, Biden’s campaign team announced.
It will be Biden’s fourth trip to Michigan this year and comes 116 days before the Nov. 5 presidential election. Four years ago, Biden defeated Trump, then president, in Michigan by 154,000 votes, or 3 percentage points, 51%-48%.
But Biden’s campaign has been in turmoil since the June 27 debate, during which he gave a series of confusing answers, at one point saying, “We finally defeated Medicare.”
The 81-year-old’s performance prompted some pundits and five Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives to call on him to step aside and let Democrats choose someone else as their nominee to run against Trump this fall. Biden has rejected their urging, claiming he will win the election.
“I will not let one 90-minute debate undo three and a half years of work,” Biden tweeted Friday. “I’m staying in the race and I will beat Donald Trump.”
On Saturday he posted the following message: “I beat Trump in 2020. In 2024 I will beat him again.”
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Biden was in Wisconsin on Friday, visits Pennsylvania on Sunday and is back in Michigan next Friday. Together, the three states helped Biden win in 2020 and win 44 electoral votes in 2024.
Biden was interviewed by ABC News host George Stephanopoulos in Wisconsin on Friday.
“I’ve convinced myself of two things: I’m the most qualified person to beat him and I know how to get things done,” Biden said of Trump during the interview.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, both potential Democratic presidential candidates, have continued their support for Biden. Newsom campaigned on Biden’s behalf in Michigan on Thursday.
“Joe Biden is our president,” Newsom said during a stop in South Haven. “He said he was all in. I doubled down, said I was all in. And not only that, I’m here with you to prove it.”
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Trump’s last trip to Michigan was on June 15, when he spoke at a Detroit church and a convention of conservative activists. Trump took aim at Biden in a post on the social media platform Truth Social Friday.
“The corrupt Joe Biden must ignore his many critics and continue his vigorous and far-reaching campaign with enthusiasm and vigor,” Trump wrote.