Washington:

US President Joe Biden returns to the campaign trail Friday, pushing ahead with his reelection bid after a mixed performance at a major news conference failed to silence calls for him to quit.

The 81-year-old will give a speech bashing rival Donald Trump in Detroit in the rust-belt state of Michigan, a crucial battleground state that the Democrat must win in November’s election.

A defiant Biden insisted in a pivotal appearance at a NATO summit on Thursday that he would run again, and win — despite concerns about his age and health following a disastrous debate performance two weeks ago.

But a series of gaffes, including referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” kept Biden’s fitness for a second term under the microscope.

The top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, said he had met with Biden late Thursday, as the number of members calling on the president to step aside rose to 20.

Jeffries said he and Biden “expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives, and conclusions about the path forward” but did not give further details.

The president has faced a steady drumbeat of Democrats calling for him to abandon his 2024 candidacy since the June 27 debate, during which Biden often lost his train of thought and appeared tired.

But Biden has obstinately dug in and insists that he can convince voters to back him despite most polls showing him trailing the criminally convicted, twice-impeached Trump.

“Most Qualified”

The campaign event in Detroit is his fourth trip this year to the state, part of the industrial “blue wall” along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that were key to his 2020 win against his rival.

Biden’s speech is expected to focus on “Project 2025”, a blueprint by hardline conservatives for the first days of a Trump term that Democrats have pinned on the former president, despite the 78-year-old’s denials.

The press conference on Thursday appeared to buy Biden some time even if it was far from a knockout blow, with three more lawmakers urging him to quit just minutes after it finished.

Biden said he was the “most qualified person to run for president,” rejecting calls for him to step aside before the November 5 vote.

He acknowledged he had to “allay fears” in the Democratic party and should “pace myself a little more” after blaming jet lag and cold for his stumbling debate performance.

Biden also fielded a series of foreign and domestic policy questions with detailed if meandering answers and relatively few slip-ups, though he did mix up Europe and Asia.

But there were damaging moments on Thursday, with the Trump-Harris mixup and an earlier gaffe at the NATO summit in which he introduced Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

The concerns over Biden are also affecting Democratic donors, with Hollywood star and high-profile supporter George Clooney calling on Biden to step aside on Wednesday.

A number of other key donors have told the largest Biden campaign fund that around $90 million in pledged donations is on hold if he carries on running, the New York Times reported on Friday.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

United States President Joe Biden recently released a campaign advertisement for the 2024 Presidential Elections on social media and cracked jokes about his age. “Look I’m not a young guy, that’s no secret,” he said in an ad released on Saturday.

The 81-year-old President appeared relaxed in the video and responded to the joke about his age by citing his many years of experience, “But here’s the deal, I understand how to get things done for the American people.” He then described the achievements of his administration, such as combating the Covid-19 crisis, strengthening the economy, and bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, before launching into talking points that are particularly pertinent to younger voters. 

I’m not a young guy. That’s no secret. But, here’s the deal: I understand how to get things done for the American people.

Here’s the first ad of our spring media campaign. pic.twitter.com/SFvwMdgzwv

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 9, 2024

“Today, we have the strongest economy in the world. I passed a law that lowers prescription drug prices, caps insulin at $35 a month for seniors,” he said.

“For four years, Donald Trump tried to pass an infrastructure law and he failed. I got it done. Now we’re rebuilding America. I’ve passed the biggest law in history to combat climate change because our future depends on it,” he continued

Reiterating his commitment from his State of the Union address, Joe Biden asserted that former US President Donald Trump “took away the freedom of women to choose”. Mr Biden then vowed to restore Roe v. Wade as “the law of the land.” “Donald Trump believes the job of the president is to take care of Donald Trump. I believe the job of the president is to fight for you, the American people and that’s what I’m doing,”  he added.

The ad ended with an outtake in which a producer off-camera requests another take from the President, to which he joked, “Look, I’m very young, energetic, and handsome. What the hell am I doing this for?”

Donald Trump routinely slams Joe Biden as old, decrepit and unfit for office. Shredding Mr Biden over his State of the Union address, Mr Trump called his speech “terrible” and said that he suffers from a “terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Fox News reported.

“He was angry, mentally disturbed, and misrepresenting a lot of the facts concerning almost every subject he discussed. But he got through it. He is still breathing, and they didn’t have to carry him out in a straight jacket. Other than that, I think he did a terrible job,” he said.