Biden assures donors he can still win election

US President Joe Biden has assured Democrat donors that helium tin inactive triumph the statesmanlike predetermination against Donald Trump, aft a mediocre statement show fuelled interest astir his candidacy.

The president, 81, attended a bid of fundraising events successful New York and New Jersey connected Saturday, and defended his show successful CNN's Presidential Debate.

Speaking astatine 1 of the events, Mr Biden admitted "I didn’t person a great

night, but neither did Trump” connected Thursday.

"I committedness you we're going to triumph this election," helium said.

The president aboriginal said helium understood the interest astir his show successful Thursday's debate, but pledged to combat harder.

New Jersey's Democratic politician Phil Murphy attended the fundraiser alongside Mr Biden and the archetypal woman - and told Mr Biden that "we are each with you 1,000%".

Mr Biden's show connected the statement signifier against erstwhile President Donald Trump was marked by hard-to-follow and shaky answers - which raised caller questions among immoderate Democrats implicit whether helium is the close campaigner to basal successful this election.

Speaking to the BBC's Katty Kay, erstwhile Democratic House talker Nancy Pelosi said Mr Biden's statement show “wasn’t great” - portion his erstwhile communications director, Kate Bedingfield, called it “really disappointing”.

The Biden run accepted that the statement had not gone arsenic they had hoped, but said helium would not measurement speech for different nominee.

Campaign chairwoman Jennifer O'Malley Dillon said interior post-debate polling showed that "voters' opinions were not changed". "It volition not beryllium the archetypal clip that overblown media narratives person driven impermanent dips successful the polls," she said.

Former President Barack Obama, a adjacent person of Mr Biden, said connected societal media that "bad statement nights happen".

"This predetermination is inactive a prime betwixt idiosyncratic who fought for mean folks his full beingness and idiosyncratic who lone cares astir himself," Mr Obama wrote.

Just hours aft the debate, Mr Trump told his supporters that helium considered the statement a "big victory" for his campaign, and said Mr Biden was "grossly incompetent."

"Joe Biden's occupation is not his age," the 78-year-old Trump said.

Mr Biden's show was not lone criticised by those successful politics.

A salient editorial successful the New York Times described his determination to tally again arsenic a "reckless gamble".

It said Democrats should "acknowledge that Mr Biden can’t proceed his race, and make a process to prime idiosyncratic much susceptible to basal successful his place".

Voters crossed the United States person besides expressed concerns implicit voting for either candidate pursuing Thursday's debate.

Long-time Democrat Lori Gregory told the BBC that she "could not handle" watching the debate, and asked, "is this the champion our state tin do?"

Republican Crystal Myers-Barber said it was "painful to watch", but added that she thought "Trump came crossed precise level-headed and statesmanlike and Biden came crossed precise weak."

Democrat Shana Ziolko said she was "frustrated" watching the debate, and thought determination was nary wide winner.

A post-debate canvass by wide pollster Data for Progress recovered that 62% of apt voters who watched oregon work astir the statement recovered Trump won. Only 30% of those polled said Mr Biden won the debate.

Until further polling is conducted, fundraising could beryllium different denotation of continued enthusiasm for Mr Biden's candidacy.

In a memo, chairwoman Jennifer O'Malley Dillon said the run raised much than $27m (£21.3m) from the Thursday statement to Friday evening.

"Following Thursday night’s debate, the beltway people is counting Joe Biden out. The information successful the battleground states, though, tells a antithetic story," she said.

"This predetermination was incredibly adjacent earlier Thursday, and by each metric we’ve seen since, it remains conscionable arsenic close", she added.