As Biden Points to His Past, Supporters Are More Worried About His Future

For many of the president’s allies, it’s not the last three and a half years that concern them. It’s the next four.

President Biden raises his fist while holding a microphone. He is wearing a blue suit. Jill Biden, the first lady, is behind him clapping and wearing a white dress.

By Zolan Kanno-Youngs, New York Times

Zolan Kanno-Youngs covers the White House and reported from Las Vegas and Dallas.

July 12, 2024

6:10 p.m. ET

As President Biden tries to save his candidacy, he is asking Americans to look to the past.

“Look at what I’ve done in three and a half years,” Mr. Biden has declared over and over again since his disastrous debate performance in Atlanta two weeks ago. On Thursday night, as the president took questions from reporters in a nearly hourlong news conference, he pointed to his record.

“Can you name me somebody,” he asked, “who’s gotten more major pieces of legislation passed in three and a half years?”

But for many of Mr. Biden’s supporters, it’s not the last three years they’re worried about. It’s the next four.

Interviews with a range of Democratic voters, lawmakers, strategists and others — most of whom voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 — suggest that the president’s attempt to run on his record since the debate is falling flat.

“This is not about the past. This is about the future,” said Representative Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat who has called for Mr. Biden to leave the race. “I love what Joe Biden has done in the past both in the White House and the Senate, but the question is whether he can beat Donald Trump going forward to November and of course whether he can serve another four years as a commander in chief.”

Mr. Biden is facing a crisis of confidence as he tries to neutralize questions about his fitness and end calls from some Democrats that he step aside from his campaign. But concerns have been growing: According to a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted after the debate, roughly 74 percent of voters agreed that Mr. Biden was too old to be an effective president.

Ronndranae Williams, a 52-year-old single mother in Dallas, said she wanted to vote for a Democrat but was uncertain about Mr. Biden’s ability to lead in a second term. During the debate, she said, she wondered if he was falling asleep.

“We just want something different, and I’m just scared of what will happen if he’s president again,” said Ms. Williams, who said she hoped Mr. Biden would pave the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to run at the top of the ticket.

Mr. Biden has insisted that he is staying in the race. Since the debate, he has hosted a NATO summit in Washington; traveled to states including North Carolina and Pennsylvania; and detailed some of his policy plans for a second term in a call with mayors, including making community college free and expanding access to prescription drugs.

July 12, 2024, 6:35 p.m. ET

“The more he gets out there to campaign with voters, the starker the contrast and easier the choice will be for these voters: between Joe Biden, a decent man fighting for the middle class, and an unhinged billionaire like Trump who wants to terminate the A.C.A. and turn our country into a dictatorship,” said Kevin Muñoz, a Biden campaign spokesman, referring to the Affordable Care Act.

Ms. Harris has also encouraged Americans to look to the president’s record. In the frenzied hours after the debate, she delivered a line on television that she and others on the campaign have used numerous times to defend Mr. Biden.

“I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three and a half years of performance,” she said.

People in a crowd standing in front of a large Biden-Harris sign hold up smaller signs that read “Biden Harris” and “Let’s Go Joe.”

And Mr. Biden has sought to reassure voters by pointing to a series of policy victories secured during his first term, including his bipartisan infrastructure package, a pandemic stimulus package, investments in the semiconductor industry and his efforts to unite NATO.

Still, even the president’s defenders have acknowledged concern about Mr. Biden’s ability to campaign over the next four months — much less lead for another four years.

“They have undoubtedly delivered significant legislative achievements, but to just point to the past is not enough,” said Antonio Arellano, the vice president for communications at NextGen America, the nation’s largest youth voter organization. He said Mr. Biden’s message to reflect on his first term “leaves a lot to be desired.”

“It’s really crucial to address that voters are rightfully concerned about the future and what the next four years look like, and that’s OK,” said Mr. Arellano, 33. “This is a democracy.”

During Thursday’s news conference, Mr. Biden was asked how he could reassure the American people that he would not “have more bad nights at the debate stage or somewhere else.”

“The best way to assure them is the way I assure myself,” he said. “And that is — am I getting the job done. Am I getting the job done.”

Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Zolan Kanno-Youngs