WILMINGTON — According to the Biden campaign, his wife will be making two stops on the East Coast on Monday, including in the Port City.
Dr. Jill Biden will deliver remarks regarding the current campaign of her husband, President Joe Biden, seeking his second term for presidency. It’s unclear where the event will be; the campaign announcement sent to media indicated more info will come. Afterward, she will head to Florida.
It’s the second time in a little more than a week Mrs. Biden has visited North Carolina. She and her husband stopped in Raleigh on Friday, June 28 — the day after Biden’s debate against former President Donald Trump. According to a Bloomberg poll, only 13% of people in the survey found Biden favored Trump in the debate.
The debate has led to some Democrats calling for 81-year-old Biden to step down, worried over incoherency and questioning his cognitive ability to run the country another four years. Others continue to rally for him, such as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling him the best person to continue leading the country.
When George Stephanopoulos interviewed Biden on July 5, he asked if the president would be willing to take an independent neurological and cognitive test by a specialist and release the results, which went unanswered.
Instead, Biden said his doctors have signed off on his health and cognitive abilities. He chalked up the debate to having “a bad night” and stated the refrain that Trump is a “pathological liar.”
The day after the debate, at Raleigh’s North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Biden combated critics taking issue with his poor performance the night before: “I know I’m not a young man … I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth.”
Some of those remarks are now being used in the president’s ad campaigns, including: “I know how to tell the truth.”
North Carolina is a battleground state, which Trump won 49.9% to Biden’s 48.6% in the 2020 election. Biden has visited the Tar Heel state numerous times this year, including Wilmington. Biden stopped at the Wilmington Convention Center in May on an official White House visit with EPA director and North Carolina native Michael Regan. They were touting their plan to invest in the removal of lead pipes and efforts made in recent months against PFAS, which pollute the Cape Fear River.
His wife also has been making appearances on his behalf when not campaigning with the president. On June 25 she was in Charlotte, explaining this year’s race is about character and wisdom, touting her husband as the man to continue the job.
Trump, who has been to the Port City numerous times as a presidential candidate, to campaign for Republicans during the midterms, as well as during his presidency to declare Wilmington a World War II Heritage City, also planned a rally earlier this spring. Yet, it was canceled at the last minute due to thunderstorms; Trump notified crowds over the PA it would be postponed, but a return date has yet to be formally announced.
According to FiveThirtyEight, the former president is leading the polls by 2 percentage points.
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