Biden seeks to repair debate damage with fiery speech

A fired-up Joe Biden came out swinging Friday as he tried to make up for a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, insisting he was the right man to win November's U.S. presidential election.

Biden's appearance at a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina came amid rumblings in his alarmed Democratic Party about replacing the 81-year-old as their nominee — and shortly before the nation's most influential newspaper urged him to step aside.

"I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to," Biden admitted to supporters in unusually confessional remarks.

"But I know how to tell the truth. I know how to do this job," he said to huge cheers, vowing "when you get knocked down, you get back up."

Biden's team was in damage-control mode after Thursday's debate when he often hesitated, tripped over words and lost his train of thought — exacerbating fears about his ability to serve another term.

He had hoped to allay qualms about his advanced age, and to expose Trump as a habitual liar.

But the president failed to counter his bombastic rival, who offered up a largely unchallenged reel of false or misleading statements about everything from the economy to immigration.

On Friday, Biden delivered the lines Democrats wished they had heard in the televised debate.

"Did you see Trump last night? My guess is he set — and I mean this sincerely — a new record for the most lies told in a single debate," Biden said.

"Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He's a threat to our freedom. He's a threat to our democracy. He's literally a threat for everything America stands for."

Trump also returned to the campaign...