California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) told reporters in the spin room Thursday night in Atlanta after the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election on CNN that President Biden won the debate on the “substance.”
Newsom and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) were sent into a phalanx of reporters as the Biden campaign’s surrogates with a seemingly impossible mission: spin a debate that even MSNBC thought Biden lost as a win for the incumbent.
“To me, that was daylight and darkness … I care about substance,” Newsom said. “This is not about style … Biden not only asserted himself, he reminded people of his accomplishments and his vision for the future.”
Newsom added that he was outraged to hear a former president say that the American economy was doing badly.
The California governor has been a loyal surrogate for the Biden campaign for several months, talking up the president’s record and attacking Republicans and Fox News. He has brushed off speculation that he himself might replace Biden, in the event that the 81-year-old president proved unable to continue his campaign due to age.
The possibility of Biden withdrawing suddenly seemed real after Biden’s halting performance onstage.
In the spin room, Newsom ignored shouted questions from reporters about whether he would consider replacing Biden.
Later, on MSNBC, Newsom said it was “unhelpful” for Democrats to talk about replacing Biden — though he appeared to admit Biden had performed poorly.
“You don’t turn your back because of one performance. What kind of party is that?” Newsom asked, calling talk about replacing Biden “unhelpful to our democracy.”
He said that Democrats had to “turn the page” on the debate and have Biden’s “back” as the campaign continued. After all he argued, everyone has had a bad night. (What about a bad 47 years.)
“Focus on tomorrow, focus on the future,” he told MSNBC.
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