‘Save democracy’: Gavin Newsom stumps for Biden in Bucks County amid panic over the president’s competency

California Gov. Gavin Newsom sought to motivate Bucks County Democrats on Saturday in a speech that lauded President Joe Biden’s achievements in his first term, but made little mention of growing concerns over the president’s age and competency following his disastrous performance against former President Donald Trump in the first presidential debate last month.

“We are going to save democracy and bring back Biden and Harris for four more years,” he proclaimed.

Newsom headlined a rally in Doylestown on Saturday morning, speaking alongside local elected officials to a crowd of Democrats who came out to support Biden in the middle of a heat wave on a holiday weekend in the swing county.

Each speaker focused on the danger that a second Trump presidency posed to the nation, from potential abuses of power to diminished rights for women and LGBTQ Americans.

“Donald Trump is not only the worst president in American history, he is a damaged human being,” said State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, who also is the Bucks County Democratic Party chair.

Newsom framed the race as a choice between “chaos and competence” and warned that Trump would return the United States to “a pre-1960s world.”

“You are the front lines of that opposition,” he said.

On the sidewalk outside the event, Trump supporters gathered with signs and flags deriding Biden and telling Newsom to go home.

The visit comes as Biden faces a rough patch in his campaign. Since the June 27 debate, the Biden campaign has been unable to tamp down panic among Democrats as many question whether the 81-year-old president can beat Trump — or is even capable of serving a second term in office, with some in the party calling for him to step aside.

Dana Rollins, a Langhorne resident who attended the rally, said he believed that Biden is the best person to take on Trump in “this moment in time.” The conversations about shifting candidates, he said, are a result of the party being a diverse group that holds a lot of voices.

“This is a process that we’re having to go through to try to put the strongest nominee forward and to be able to defeat Donald Trump,’ he said.

“I believe that this organization, the Democratic organization, will come to the right answer,” Rollins added.

The Newsom stop comes as Biden is in the midst of his own critical set of campaign events — a stop in Wisconsin on Friday, scheduled stops in Philadelphia and Harrisburg on Sunday, and an interview that aired Friday on ABC. During the interview Friday, Biden sought to project strength and vowed to stay in the race. Many Democrats, however, have continued to express concern.

According to the New York Times, Biden has acknowledged that these events would be critical to his ability to salvage his campaign. A poll from the Times showed that Biden had lost ground against Trump following the debate.

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

When asked by a reporter after the rally whether he would run if the party nomination was open at the Democratic convention in August, Newsom said “no” and spoke highly of Biden’s continued candidacy. For any other candidate to be nominated, Biden would have to voluntarily step aside.

“To me, it’s the hypothetical that gets in the way of progress in terms of promoting this candidacy,” Newsom told reporters after the pro-Biden rally. “It’s exactly where the other party wants us to be, having this internal fight.”

Newsom has made numerous stops in swing states to show that support, including a stop in Michigan on Thursday and one in Pittsburgh on Friday. He was scheduled to visit another Philadelphia suburb, Chester County, Saturday evening.

The Philadelphia suburbs — and Bucks County, in particular — are critical to Democrats if they want to win Pennsylvania. Bucks County is the only county in the metro area represented by a Republican in Congress but its voters chose Biden over Trump in 2020.

In an interview, Bucks County Republican Committee Chairwoman Pat Poprick criticized the campaign’s choice to bring Newsom, the governor of one of America’s most liberal states, to a moderate county.

“We are not that liberal, we are not that far out,” Poprick said. “I think it’s very telling that they think that’s going to help them in Bucks County.”

Though national polling in the wake of the debate has shown problems for Biden, Newsom told reporters the battle will ultimately be fought in such places as Bucks County.

“Yesterday was a good day and we all want to see more of that,” Newsom said when asked whether Biden was doing enough to prove he was up for the job. “That’s what campaigns are about: Get the surrogates out there. Get the party faithful out there. It’s a bottom-up, not top-down campaign. It’s county by county at the end of the day.”