Biden Raises Record Funds as Aides Jab “Train Wreck” Trump After Sorry Debate

By Staff, Agencies

Joe Biden broke fundraising records coming out of Tuesday’s acrimonious presidential debate between the Democratic nominee and Donald Trump.

The chaotic and unwieldy debate, in which moderator Chris Wallace, from Fox News, struggled to rein in Trump and the president egged on far-right groups, yielded a large fundraising haul for the Democratic campaign.

In a conference call with reporters after the debate, Biden’s communications director and deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, announced that the campaign raised $3.8m between 10pm and 11pm through ActBlue, the Democratic grassroots fundraising site.

“Tonight we broke the single-hour record for a campaign ever on ActBlue,” Bedingfield said. “And we broke our own hour record and raised $3.8m between 10 o’clock and 11 o’clock.”

That fundraising infusion suggested that the total sum the campaign raised from the debate eclipsed the entire hauls some statewide or national campaigns have enjoyed.

The $3.8m was one plainly positive note for the Biden campaign following a debate that both Democrats and Republicans cast as a mess. After the debate in Cleveland, even usually reserved TV anchors could not help but denounce it as the worst debate they had ever seen – a “s**tshow”, as CNN put it.

Speaking to reporters during a campaign stop in Ohio, Biden condemned Trump’s debate performance, saying he understood why some Americans would feel disgusted with politics.

“The president of the United States conducting himself the way he did, I think it was just a national embarrassment,” Biden said.

Biden also specifically addressed one of the most startling moments of the night – when the president refused to denounce white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys, telling them instead to “stand back and stand by” – and offered his own message to the far right.

“My message to the Proud Boys and every other white supremacist group is cease and desist,” Biden said. “That’s not who we are. This is not who we are as Americans.”

Biden described Trump’s debate performance, and specifically his refusal to condemn white supremacist violence, as “a wake-up call for all Americans”.

“For 90 minutes, he tried everything to distract,” Biden said. “And it just didn’t work.”

On Wednesday morning, Republicans were somewhat morose about Trump’s performance and the longer-term outlook.

Trump did hit some of Biden’s weak spots, such as when he cornered the former vice-president on whether he supported adding seats to the supreme court [Biden didn’t commit one way or another], and when he pushed Biden to distance himself from the leftwing Green New Deal set of environmental proposals.

But those moments were eclipsed by Trump’s refusal to denounce the Proud Boys and his near-constant interruptions of Biden and Wallace. On Wednesday, when questioned about his refusal to condemn the group, Trump said the Proud Boys should “stand down and let law enforcement do their work” and that he didn’t know who they were.

During the debate Biden had a few zingers, but he visibly struggled to keep his composure. At one point he told the president to just “shut up”; at another, he said Trump was the “worst president America has ever had”. The “shut up” line spread quickly online and inspired memorabilia.

On Wednesday, Biden and his allies stressed a sense of optimism.

“Biden was stellar compared to the train wreck that was Trump,” the Democratic strategist Maria Cardona said. “In that sense, I feel great! But I am wholeheartedly embarrassed at the global spectacle Trump made of the United States last night.”

But there was also a sense, for supporters of both candidates, that the debate would not dramatically shift voters one way or another. Republicans did not expect Trump to lose support, but they did not expect him to gain much, either.