President Joe Biden's wife does not seem to be considering advising her husband to step down after his heavily criticized debate performance against Donald Trump on TV.
Joe is not just the right man for the job. He is the only one, says Jill Biden, who is referred to as the person he would listen to.
She and her husband were out on several campaign meetings in New York on Saturday and were keen to show that Joe Biden continues his campaign ahead of the autumn's presidential election.
Democrats, some openly and many anonymously, and the New York Times editorial page have urged Biden to hand over to a younger candidate in the election against Donald Trump, after Biden's weak performance in the debate the other evening. The situation in the Democrats is described by some as panic-stricken.
Biden, 81, seemed aged in the debate. He was hoarse, mixed things up, had trouble finishing sentences and reasoning, and was not quick in his responses to Trump, as he has shown before.
Jill Biden did not mince words about what was going on in people's minds after the debate, at one of the meetings in New York.
Don't know
I know what you're thinking. As Joe said earlier today, he's not young. And afterwards, he said to me: "Jill, I don't know what happened. It didn't feel good".
Her response, according to her own account, was that a 90-minute debate performance should not be allowed to overshadow what he has achieved during four years as president.
Hard to switch
She highlighted his abilities and also made it clear that neither he nor she has any plans to abandon the campaign to let someone else take on Trump. According to assessors of the party's internal life and formalities, it would be very difficult to replace Joe Biden if he doesn't want to himself.
On Sunday, Biden will travel to the presidential retreat Camp David, where he also prepared for the less successful debate performance. This time, he is gathering his children and grandchildren around him.
