Biden tries to flip the script on negative narrative coming out of disastrous debate with Trump

Aiming to rebound after his halting performance in his first debate with former President Trump, President Biden is launching a new ad in key battleground states that aims to alter the brutal narrative coming out of last week’s showdown.

The 60-second commercial doesn’t use clips of the president’s rough delivery and stumbling answers at the debate in Atlanta before an estimated audience of 50 million people across the country. 

Instead, the spot showcases clips of an energetic Biden the next day at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Folks, I know I’m not a young man. But I know how to do this job. I know right from wrong. I know how to tell the truth,” Biden says in the ad. “And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up.”

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The ad aims to salvage Biden’s standing in his 2024 election rematch with Trump, and to ease widespread panic in the Democratic Party, after the president’s performance sparked calls from political pundits, editorial writers, and some Democratic politicians and donors, for Biden to step aside as the party’s standard-bearer. 

The commercial also continues a theme from the Biden campaign since Thursday’s debate – that Trump repeatedly spread falsehoods throughout the debate.

“Did you see Trump last night?” Biden says in the ad, in a clip from the Raleigh rally.

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“I mean this sincerely – the most lies told in a single debate. He lied about the great economy he created. He lied about the pandemic he botched. And then, his biggest lie: He lied about how he had nothing to do with the insurrection on Jan. 6,” the president argued.

The release of the ad comes as the president and his campaign work to push back against the tidal wave of criticism and calls for Biden to end his bid for a second term.

President Biden and former President Trump participate in the CNN Presidential Debate on June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“Americans deserve a president who doesn’t back down from a fight, and that’s Joe Biden,” campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement.

The ad is the latest element in a multipronged effort by the president, his campaign and allies.

Two Democratic sources confirmed to Fox News that top Biden campaign officials worked to calm concerns and fears as they huddled privately on Friday at a previously scheduled meeting in Atlanta with top party donors.

The Biden campaign held a conference call Saturday with committee members and other officials of the Democratic National Committee, two Democratic Party sources confirmed to Fox News.

The call was described as an effort to reassure party officials and demonstrate that the Biden campaign is communicating with its allies.

And starting during the debate on Thursday night, Biden’s campaign repeatedly highlighted throughout the weekend what it described as record-breaking fundraising both during and after the debate.

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden walk off stage after speaking at a campaign rally, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Biden’s campaign on Saturday morning announced that it hauled in $27 million in fundraising Thursday and Friday, which it highlighted as “a sign of strength of our grassroots support.”

The campaign on Sunday morning spotlighted that the campaign cash haul had surged to $33 million.

A Biden campaign adviser, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News the fundraising is “an important sign that there’s a bit of disconnect between national narratives and where supporters are.”

A Democratic strategist and presidential campaign veteran said the Biden campaign’s focus on fundraising “is their best and maybe their only card to play.”

But the strategist, who was granted anonymity to speak more freely, emphasized “there’s no amount of money that can reverse the damage that was done at the debate and the president confirming everyone’s worst suspicions and fears about him and his age and not being up to the job. Period.” 

The Biden campaign is taking aim at criticism from within the party.

Biden campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon released a memo on Saturday evening that pushed back against “all the hand-wringing” and reiterated that “this will be a very close election.”

And the campaign on Monday touted their “Weekend of Action,” which they called a “mobilization blitz, engaging voters at over 1,500 events across the battlegrounds, marking the most successful organizing weekend of the campaign by far this cycle.”

Former President Trump walks off stage after giving remarks at a rally at Greenbrier Farms on June 28, 2024, in Chesapeake, Virginia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Trump, in a nationally syndicated radio interview that aired Monday morning, emphasized that “this thing was a monster,” as he pointed to the debate.

“It was just very important,” he added as he joined conservative radio host and Trump ally John Fredericks.

The comments were Trump’s latest in his victory lap following Thursday’s debate.

“He studied so hard that he didn’t know what the hell he was doing,” Trump said of Biden’s week-long debate prep ahead of the showdown, as the former president spoke at a large rally Friday in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Trump took aim at his Democratic rival, calling the president “grossly incompetant.”

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Looking forward, Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita told Fox News that “from the campaign standpoint, it’s just added rocket fuel… it helps greatly in terms of not only raising money and motivating the troops, but creates issues clearly for the Democrat nominee.”

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Asked by Fox News if they’d start running ads with debate clips, LaCivita answered, “I don’t discuss ad strategy but duh!”

But as of Monday morning, neither the Trump campaign nor MAGA Inc., the leading super PAC supporting the former president’s campaign, had launched new ads using debate clips.

A source in Trump’s political orbit told Fox News “how much do we need to do while they are busy committing suicide,” when asked about whether ads would be forthcoming.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.