Biden’s New Post-Debate Ad: ‘When You Get Knocked Down, You Get Back Up’
President Biden’s campaign will begin airing a new 60-second television ad in key battleground states on Monday as the presumptive Democratic nominee seeks to recover from a stilted debate performance last week in Atlanta that has shaken his standingin the 2024 race.
The ad, provided to The New York Times ahead of its first airing, doesn’t show footage of Mr. Biden’s hoarse, halting delivery before an audience of more than 50 million at Thursday’s debate.
Instead, the ad features narration by Mr. Biden that is culled entirely from the rally that his campaign staged the next day in North Carolina. At that event, Mr. Biden, with the top two buttons of his dress shirt open under his suit jacket, gave the kind of energetic performance that allies had been hoping for the night before.
With dramatic music pulsing in the background, the ad begins with attacks on former President Donald J. Trump before Mr. Biden, 81, pivots to acknowledging his own limitations.
“Folks, I know I’m not a young man,” Mr. Biden says. “But I know how to do this job. I know right from wrong. I know how to tell the truth. And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up.”
He punctuates that final line with an emphatic fist pump.
The ad comes after 72 of the most intensive hours of the campaign for Mr. Biden. Rattled donors debated among themselves about what could be done after Mr. Biden’s debate performance, and the White House and the Biden campaign raced into overdrive to circle the political wagons behind the president.