Biden on the counter-attack: 'I'm not leaving, I'm running and we will win'

He unsheathes his claws, Joe Biden. He does so from Detroit in Michigan, the industrial state and 'brick' of that Bue Wall, the blue wall that has often supported the Democrats, indispensable to winning the White House. But which today is trembling, a symbol of the party's drama and of the risk in November of being overrun again by Donald Trump. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm running and we're going to win,' the president said, haranguing a crowd of enthusiastic supporters. He attacked Trump harshly, calling him a criminal, a rapist and a crook. And, in tones that to some seemed to mimic his nemesis, he lashed out at the media, accused of only targeting his gaffes and frailties and condoning his rival. "I'm the only one, Democrat or Republican, who has ever beaten him," he urged.

Biden spoke for over half an hour at a crowded high school gymnasium event, intent on heartening supporters about his condition after a disastrous televised debate with Trump and a less-than-stellar showing at the most recent press conference. But, party strategists concede, he will need continued and multiple combative events to truly convince, at 81, Democratic insurgents and voters in the polls (74% want him to leave) that he is capable of sustaining the campaign and winning a new White House term at the ballot box.

In Detroit, the absence of local party notables stood out. And, even shortly before the rally, a tense meeting with Hispanic leaders had seen for the first time a congressman, Californian Mike Levin, face to face asking him to step aside. The official defections are now around twenty.

Trump, for his part, stepped up the offensive on the eve of the conservative convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, another large swing state, from tomorrow to Thursday. He had scheduled a rally last night in Burton, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, at an agricultural fair. The spotlight is on the choice of deputy, which he anticipated perhaps already with an announcement in Burton, or early in the convention: at least three apparent finalists, Ohio Senator JD Vance, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and another senator, Marco Rubio of Florida. And surprises are not excluded.

Vance, an author, former venture capitalist and made from scratch, is considered the new face: young, 39 years old, an effective speaker and popular among the activists of the Make America Great Again movement, but had once been among Trump's critics. Burgum is a billionaire but has little national experience. Rubio does well with the large Hispanic electorate but has failed in the past in the moments that count.