“Biden came face-to-face with voter concerns just before the ABC interview, as he was taking the stage at a campaign rally in Wisconsin. A rally attendee unfurled a sign reading, “Pass the torch, Joe.” The sign was visible for a few moments before someone else tried to cover part of it with a Biden-Harris sign.
Biden’s speech during that rally was animated and energetic – though he seemed to realize that each of his words would be parsed and carefully scrutinized in this politically crucial period. He vowed to “beat Trump again in 2020” before quickly realizing his mistake and correcting himself: “By the way, we’re gonna do it again in 2024.” Slamming Trump’s economic policy, Biden said his opponent “wants another 5 billion - trillion, trillion, not billion - $5 trillion tax cut.”
He directly addressed criticisms about his age: “I wasn’t too old to create over 50 million new jobs, to make sure 21 million Americans are insured under the Affordable Care Act, to beat Big Pharma. … Was I too old to relieve student debt for nearly 5 million Americans? Too old to put the first Black woman on the Supreme Court of the United States of America? To sign the Respect for Marriage Act?”
Biden said unnamed forces are “trying to push him out of the race.”
“Well, let me say this as quick as I can,” he added. “I’m staying in the race.”
That point was punctuated by the song that played as Biden’s speech concluded: Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”
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