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Biden punches at Trump and the press as he tries to revive his campaign
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DETROIT — President Biden aggressively attacked his Republican rival and laid out his own plans for his first 100 days in office on Friday, debuting a retooled stump speech that punched back at the press for covering the stumbles that have jeopardized his campaign.
Biden, 81, is fighting to revive his bid for a second term after a steady stream of Democrats have questioned whether he is strong enough to win in November after a debate two weeks ago where he struggled to make his points.
"You’ve probably noticed there’s been a lot of speculation lately: 'What’s Joe Biden going to do — is he going to stay in the race? Is he going to drop out?'" he said.
"I am running and we’re going to win. I’m not going to change that," he said during a rambunctious rally in a high school gym, where his supporters chanted "Don't you quit!" and "We got your back!"
"You made me the nominee. No one else. Not the press, not the pundits, not the insiders, not donors," he said. "And I'm not going anywhere."
Biden's Michigan trip came in a flurry of appearances to "Blue Wall" states he needs to secure to win again. He was in Pennsylvania last weekend and Wisconsin a week ago.
Biden's crowd booed the press
The new speech comes just ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which starts on Monday. Biden is trying to show that "just had a bad night" at the debate but otherwise is hale and hearty — and to turn the spotlight back onto former President Donald Trump.
In what may be a first at a Biden rally, supporters booed the press as Biden complained about coverage of his political woes.
"They’ve been hammering me because I sometimes confuse names," Biden said. "I say, 'That's Charlie,' instead of 'Bill,'" Biden said.
The rally came the day after Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as "Vladimir Putin" during a NATO summit event, and later called Vice President Harris "Vice President Trump" at a press conference.
"But guess what: Donald Trump has gotten a free pass," he said, criticizing the media for failing to cover the former president.
Voter Tiombe Williams told NPR that Biden's speech "hit all the right notes."
"I'll be honest, I was a little disappointed with the debate, but I thought he made up for it tonight," Williams said. "He was very clear about his agenda, where we're going to go from now until the next four years."
Gloria Ghant, a registered nurse from Detroit, said she wanted to see Biden speak amid the "speculations that he's not all cognitively aware."
"He's very cognitively aware, and he wants to save democracy," said Ghant, 64.
Project 2025 and 'Lock him up'
Biden rattled off highlights of odd Trump rally moments: praise for Hannibal Lecter, fear of sharks, praise for Putin.
“People would rather talk about how I mix up names. I guess they don’t remember that Trump called Nikki Haley 'Nancy Pelosi,'" Biden said.
Biden talked about the details of Trump's recent hush money conviction and defamation lawsuit and ran through a dizzying list of Trump's other civil legal woes. He talked about the outstanding criminal charges the former president still faces.
At times, his supporters chanted, "Lock him up" — an echo of a Trump rally cheer circa 2016, when Trump accused his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of criminal misdeeds.
Biden described the details of Project 2025, a 900-page conservative plan to transform government that he said would be a blueprint for Trump's second term. (Trump has recently disavowed it.)
Biden said Trump would use the plan to criminalize medication abortion, prosecute his enemies, replace large swaths of the civil service with loyalists, cut social security and Medicare, eliminate the Department of Education, end programs like school lunches and Head Start, and give tax cuts to the rich.
Biden's plan for his first 100 days
For the first time, Biden laid out what he described as a plan for the first 100 days of his second term. It was a long wish list of items that would require passage in Congress — a difficult lift particularly when Democrats are gloomy about the prospects of losing their slim majority in the Senate, and worried they will be unable to take back control of the House of Representatives.
Biden said his top agenda items were to restore abortion rights lost when Roe v. Wade was overturned, sign the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, expand social security and Medicare, raise the federal minimum wage, ban assault items and tax billionaires — among many other things.
Biden contrast his plan with Trump proposals. He said Trump has promised tariffs on imports that would result in higher prices for fruit, vegetables and coffee — and bragged that his own economic plan had led to soaring stock markets.
"I love telling Trump this, even though I don't own any stock," Biden said.
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