New York Democrats defend Joe Biden after rocky debate performance

WASHINGTON — New York Democrats rallied behind President Joe Biden on Friday after his rocky presidential debate performance against former President Donald Trump sparked speculation about Biden's viability as a candidate.

As Biden, 81, prepared to headline a pair of campaign fundraisers in Manhattan and East Hampton this weekend, local Democrats acknowledged the president's “disappointing” debate performance Thursday, but most argued he would redeem himself on the campaign trail.

State Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs, who also heads the Nassau County Democratic Committee, called on Democrats to “settle down, and just wait and see how this shakes out.”

Immediately after the debate Thursday night, prominent Democrats such as former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and former Obama White House Advisor David Axelrod suggested Biden should consider stepping aside to allow another candidate to run.

Jacobs described calls for Biden to abandon his reelection bid “an overreaction.”

Jacobs told Newsday: “When you get closer to the election, what happens is you'll see Democrats solidify. Right now, they're not enthused. You're asking somebody's opinion about something way in the distance. When it's a week or two weeks out, things change.”

Republicans celebrated Trump’s performance, arguing it would help narrow the polling gap between him and Biden among New York voters. A Siena College poll of state voters released last week found Biden had a lead of only 8% over Trump. The poll had a 4.1% margin of error.

“I think we’re heading for a 1980s style realignment in New York,” New York Republican Committee spokesman David Laska said in a telephone interview. Ronald Reagan was the last Republican to win a presidential race in New York.

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) told Newsday he'll continue to support Biden.

“It wasn’t the president’s best night, but it was one night, and does not erase three and a half years of accomplishments,” Suozzi said.

Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committeeman from Great Neck, said “as disappointing as President Biden's debate performance was,” the election comes down to “Joe Biden’s performance as president versus Donald Trump’s performance as president.”

“President Biden's record of job growth, leadership for the veterans community, and advocacy for working men and women stands in stark contrast to the Trump record of job losses, elimination of the state and local tax deduction, and attempts to overturn democracy for his own selfish agenda,” said Zimmerman, who ran unsuccessfully in New York's 3rd Congressional District in 2022.

State Assemb. Michaelle Solages (D-Elmont), a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, said Biden should be judged on the entirety of his record.

“We're imperfect beings; people have imperfect nights,” Solages told Newsday. “At the end of the day, this is not just about the presidency. There's a lot on the line with democracy, with our rights, our freedoms, and we have to be focused on the fact that we have an administration doing the work and making sure that we're protecting the tenets of American freedom, justice and equality.”

In social media posts, other New York Democrats sought to frame the November election as a referendum on Trump, not Biden.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on the social media site X referred to Trump’s conviction on charges he falsified business documents to conceal hush money payments to alleged paramours. Hochul, a Democrat, also asserted Trump would support a federal abortion ban. Trump has said he opposes a federal ban, but has also embraced his appointments of three conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices who joined the court’s decision to overturn federal abortion protections in 2022.

“Those are the stakes this November,” Hochul wrote.

Former Nassau County Executive Laura Curran told Newsday she believed Biden should have stepped away from the presidential race more than a year ago.

“Everybody's now being exposed to the soul searching, which was a little more private before, but now it's just in everybody's face,” said Curran, who was defeated by Republican Bruce Blakeman in 2021. “And the question is, what's next?”

Curran said as a former local official, she’s concerned about how Biden's presence at the top of the ticket will impact down-ballot candidates.

“Normally in a place like Nassau County, we're really excited in a presidential year because turnout is bigger and it's great for the congressional candidates, it's great for all the local officials,” Curran said.

“In this case, I think it's more of an albatross than a help,” she said.

But Babylon Town Councilman DuWayne Gregory, a delegate to the Democratic convention, said: “I can't wait to cast my vote to renominate him because there is too much on the line and we can’t afford another four years of Trump.”

With Tom Brune