Despite debate performance, he has fundraising momentum – which is vital in a tight race.

The re-election campaign for says it has raised a whopping $27 million since his rocky debate performance against former President Trump. From the day of the debate through Friday evening, the told Fox News that it had raised $27 million. The updated figure comes after the campaign said on Friday that it raised $14 million in "a sign of strength of our grassroots support" on debate day and the morning after. The campaign also noted Friday that 11 p.m. to 12 p.m. on Thursday – the first hour after the debate – was the single since the campaign's launch in April 2023. The large sums of cash come as Biden's campaign seeks to address panic over whether he is mentally fit to serve as president following his disastrous faceoff with Trump in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday. "I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious," Biden, who at 81 is the oldest president in the nation's history, told cheering supporters at a Friday afternoon rally in the crucial battleground state of North Carolina. "Folks, 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 acknowledged. "But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up." The president, pointing to his 2024 emphasized, "I would not be running again if I did not believe with all my heart and soul that I can do this job." Struggling with a raspy voice and delivering rambling answers, Biden struggled during portions of the debate. Several political analysts noted, however, that the president sharpened his answers as the debate progressed. Biden's uneven and, at times, halting performance grabbed the vast majority of headlines from the debate and sparked a new round of calls from political pundits, publications and some Democrats for the president to step aside as the party's standard-bearer. Top Biden allies have pushed back against such talk as they defended the president and targeted Trump for "lying" throughout the debate. Two Democratic sources confirmed to Fox News that top Biden campaign officials worked to calm concerns and fears as they huddled privately on Friday at a previously scheduled meeting with top party donors. "Biden‘s record grassroots fundraising from the day of the debate is critical. It helps blunt the criticism from Biden’s performance," veteran political strategist and Democratic National Committee member Maria Cardona told Fox News. Cardona, a top Biden supporter, said spotlighting the fundraising "reminds Democrats that there is enthusiasm for the president and urgency to make sure that the liar and criminal Donald Trump doesn’t get close to the Oval Office."