Gavin Newsom to Campaign in Bucks County Ahead of Biden’s Visit

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a top surrogate for President Joe Biden, is heading to Bucks County on Saturday to campaign for president as Biden continues to face pressure to suspend his campaign following his disastrous debate performance last month.

Newsom is set to headline a 10:30 a.m. rally in the key swing county, alongside local officials and Democratic candidates. The Biden campaign has not yet revealed the exact location of the event, scheduled for the day before the president’s first visit to Pennsylvania since the debate.

The campaign said in a press release that Saturday’s rally will focus on “Donald Trump’s attacks on our democracy and threats to our fundamental rights and freedoms.”

Newsom will campaign for Biden later this afternoon alongside state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia), the candidate for state auditor, at an event hosted by the Chester County Democratic Party in Malvern.

The rallies are part of a series of public events planned by the campaign. an attempt to assure voters that the 81-year-old president will cope with another term.

In the days since the debate, panic among Democrats grew as some pressured Biden to suspend his campaign in favor of a younger candidate. While prominent Democrats such as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, he said Biden should resign and others, like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have expressed concerns about his mental health, Pennsylvania Democrats have publicly remained on board with the campaign.

Newsom, a 56-year-old second-term governor, has staunchly defended Biden, even as his name has been floated as a possible replacement candidate.

According to the Associated Press Newsom campaigned for Biden in Michigan on Thursday. He urged local Democrats “not to be fooled by all this negativity.”

“I believe in this man. I believe in his character. I believe he was one of the most transformational presidents in our collective lifetime,” Newsom said at the event. “We’re so good at focusing on what’s wrong and not celebrating what’s right.”

Biden and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to visit Pennsylvania on Sunday. They were originally scheduled to speak at the National Education Association conference, but the campaign announced Friday that the president would change plans to avoid crossing the NEA workers’ picket lines. The conference was canceled because of a strike called Friday by NEA workers.

In an interview for Philadelphia radio station WURD posted on Thursday: Biden called his performance a “bad debate.”

“Ninety minutes on stage won’t erase what I’ve been doing for three and a half years,” he said.

Biden, however, stuttered at times in the interview. Trying to point out that he served with the first black president, Barack Obama, and is now serving with the first black vice president, Kamala Harris, Biden struggled to get the words out, creating a catchphrase for which he has already been criticized.

“The first vice president, the first black woman, to serve alongside a black president,” he said.

The interview focused largely on Biden’s accomplishments in his first term and the stakes of the election.

“The guy I’m running with is a convicted felon and has said from day one he wants to be a dictator,” Biden said.