PRESIDENT Joe Biden has addressed the huge reaction to his tragic debate with Donald Trump.
The stammering commander-in-chief has faced calls to step aside entirely following the televised faux pas on Thursday night.
Biden, 81, today said he doesn't "speak as smoothly", "debate as well" or "walk as easy" as he used to while addressing voters in North Carolina.
It was the first time Biden will go head to head with former president Trump, 78, for a live debate in the 2024 presidential election.
Members of his own Democrat party even dubbed it an "unmitigated disaster", "a meltdown", and "a slow-motion car crash".
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The White House came out in defence of Biden today and said he was suffering from a cold and a sore throat during the debate.
Speaking to a crowd in North Carolina on Friday, Biden said: "I know I'm not a young man, to state the obvious.
"Folks, 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, I know right from wrong."
The president then coughed twice during the speech amid loud cheers from the crowd.
He insisted he knows how to "do this job" and how to "get things done".
Biden also appeared to insist that the embarrassing performance would not convince him to pull out of the race.
He told the audience: "I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up."
The debate saw both men touch on issues including immigration, abortion, medical care, employment, the Covid pandemic and even an argument about who was better at golf.
It has followed months of concern about the bumbling president's fitness for the job after a series of gaffs, blunders, and episodes where critics have said he looks frail.
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Biden began the debate by speaking very quietly and lost his train of thought while searching for the word "Medicare".
He said: “Making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with, the eh, COVID.
"Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with...Look…Medicare.”
At one point Trump made a barbed jibe at the president, jeering: "I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either."
Biden did appear to hit his stride towards the end of the debate when he picked up in force and pace.
When asked about concerns in his own party that he should drop out of the race following the debate, Biden said: "It's hard to debate a liar."
David Plouffe, a Democratic strategist and former Obama campaign official, called the debate “kind of a Defcon 1 moment.”
A spokesperson from his campaign has said no conversations are happening about Biden stepping back.
They said plans are still in place for him to participate in the next presidential debate, scheduled for September 10.
Trump, speaking today at a rally in Virginia, claimed voters are deciding between "a president who puts America first" or a "train wreck who puts America last."
He made a baseless claim that he "beat ISIS" during his time as president and said he was the only president "in many decades" who did not start a war.
Former president Obama defended his friend and ex-vice president Biden today, saying "Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know."
