RED BANK, N.J. (AP) — President Joe Biden looked to recapture his mojo and reassured donors at a Saturday fundraiser that he is fully up to the challenge of beating Donald Trump.

“I didn’t have a great night, but I’m going to be fighting harder,” Biden told attendees at the home of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. “Donald Trump is a genuine threat to the nation,” he emphasized, saying that his predecessor would undermine democracy if returned to the White House and his economic ideas would worsen inflation.

The 81-year-old’s troubling performance at the first presidential debate Thursday rattled many Democrats, who see Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection as an existential threat to U.S. democracy. Biden’s meandering answers and struggles to respond to Trump prompted The New York Times editorial board to declare Friday that he should exit the race and that staying in would be a “reckless gamble.”

Biden and his wife, Jill, attended an afternoon campaign event in East Hampton, New York, the Long Island beach town where the real estate firm Zillow prices the median home at $1.9 million. Based on public records, the event that was closed to the news media was at the home of Avram Glazer, an owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team.

The couple then went to a second event in East Hampton at the home of investor Barry Rosenstein, whose wife, Lizanne, said the president was “a role model for what it is to get knocked down over and over and over again and get up.”

“We can waste time comparing debate nights,” she continued. “But you know what? It’s more meaningful to compare presidencies.”

Addressing the gathering, Biden tore into Trump over his presidential record including his treatment of veterans and said of Thursday night’s debate, “I didn’t have a great night, but neither did Trump.”

Biden contended that the polling he’s seen shows that Democrats moved up after the debate “The big takeaway was his lies,” he said.

In the aftermath of Thursday night’s debate, Biden flashed more vigor in speeches in North Carolina and New York on Friday, saying he believes with “all my heart and soul” that he can do the job of the presidency.

The Biden campaign said it has raised more than $27 million on Thursday and Friday, including $3 million at a New York City fundraiser focused on the LGBTQ+ community.

Jill Biden told supporters Friday that he said to her after the debate, “You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great.” The first lady then said she responded to him, “Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president.”

The Democratic president still needs to allay the fears stirred by the debate as it seeped into the public conscience with clips and memes spreading on the internet and public pressure for him to bow out of the race.

Democratic donors across New York, Southern California and Silicon Valley privately expressed deep concerns about the viability of Biden’s campaign in the wake of his debate performance.

In a series of text message chains and private conversations, they discussed the short list of possible replacements, a group that included Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris.

But on Friday, there was no formal push to pressure Biden to step aside and some suspected there never would be given the logistical challenges associated with replacing the presumptive nominee just four months before Election Day.

Some donors noted they were going to pause their personal giving. They said receipts from Biden’s weekend fundraiser would almost certainly be strong because the tickets were sold and paid for before the debate.

Peoples reported from New York.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Beryl strengthened into a hurricane Saturday as it churned toward the southeastern Caribbean, with forecasters warning it was expected to become a dangerous major storm before reaching Barbados late Sunday or early Monday.

A major hurricane is considered Category 3 or higher, with winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph). At midafternoon Saturday, Beryl was a Category 1 hurricane, marking the farthest east that a hurricane formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, breaking a record set in 1933, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.

A hurricane warning was issued for Barbados, and a hurricane watch was in effect for St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A tropical storm watch was issued for Martinique, Dominica and Tobago.

“It’s astonishing to see a forecast for a major (Category 3+) hurricane in June anywhere in the Atlantic, let alone this far east in the deep tropics. #Beryl organizing in a hurry over the warmest waters ever recorded for late June,” Florida-based hurricane expert Michael Lowry posted on X.

Beryl’s center was forecast to pass about 26 miles (45 kilometers) south of Barbados, said Sabu Best, director of the island’s meteorological service. Forecasters then expected the storm to cross the Caribbean on a path toward Jamaica and eventually Mexico.

Late Saturday afternoon, Beryl was centered about 720 miles (1,160 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbados, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph). It was moving west at 22 mph (35 kph).

“Rapid strengthening is now forecast,” the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Atmospheric science researcher Tomer Burg noted that Beryl was just a tropical depression with 35 mph winds Friday.

“This means that according to preliminary data, Beryl already met rapid intensification criteria before even becoming a hurricane,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

Warm waters were fueling Beryl, with ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic the highest on record for this time of year, according to Brian McNoldy, University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher.

Beryl also is the strongest June tropical storm on record that far east in the tropical Atlantic, according to Klotzbach.

“We need to be ready,” Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a public address late Friday. “You and I know when these things happen, it is better to plan for the worst and pray for the best.”

She noted that thousands of people are in Barbados for the Twenty20 World Cup cricket final, with India beating South Africa on Saturday in the capital of Bridgetown. It is considered cricket’s biggest event.

Some fans, like Shashank Musku, a 33-year-old physician who lives in Pittsburgh, were rushing to change their flights to leave before the storm.

Musku said by phone that he has never experienced a hurricane: “I don’t plan on being in one, either.”

He and his wife, who were rooting for India, found out about Beryl thanks to a taxi driver who mentioned the storm.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said in a public address Saturday that shelters would open Sunday evening and he urged people to prepare. He ordered officials to refuel government vehicles and asked grocery stores and gas stations to stay open later before the storm.

“There will be such a rush … if you keep limited hours,” he said as he apologized ahead of time for government interruptions on radio stations with storm updates. “Cricket lovers have to bear with us that we’ll have to give information … this is life and death.”

Beryl is the second named storm in what is predicted to be a busy hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto came ashore in northeastern Mexico with heavy rains that resulted in four deaths.

Lowry noted that in records dating back to 1851 only five named storms had ever formed in June in the tropical Atlantic east of the Caribbean, and only one of those was a hurricane. He said that one was the first hurricane of 1933, which was the most active hurricane season on record.

Mark Spence, manager of a hostel in Barbados, said by phone that he was calm about the approaching storm.

“It’s the season. You can get a storm any time,” he said. “I’m always prepared. I always have enough food in my house.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts the 2024 hurricane season is likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast calls for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

Beryl was expected to drop up to six inches (15 centimeters) of rain in Barbados and nearby islands, and a high surf warning of waves up to 13 feet (4 meters) was in effect. A storm surge of up to seven feet (2 meters) was also forecast.

The storm is approaching the southeastern Caribbean just days after the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago had major flooding in the capital, Port-of-Spain, as a result of an unrelated weather event.

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Caribbean leaders are not only worried about Beryl, but also about a cluster of thunderstorms closely following Beryl’s path that had a 70% chance of becoming a tropical depression by the middle of next week.

Meanwhile, a no-name storm earlier this June dumped more than 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain on parts of South Florida, stranding numerous motorists on flooded streets and pushing water into some homes in low-lying areas.

Two days after his debate against President Joe Biden, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump listed a series of choices for voters to make in November.

Biden’s performance Thursday night drew much criticism from pundits and politicians on both sides of the aisle, and Trump joined in Saturday on social media.

“As every American saw firsthand, this election is a choice between STRENGTH or WEAKNESS, COMPETENCE or INCOMPETENCE, peace and prosperity or war and no war—and it’s a choice between a president who puts AMERICA FIRST or a trainwreck who puts AMERICA LAST!” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.

Trump’s framing of the election as a choice somewhat resembles former President Barack Obama’s response to Biden’s performance. Obama acknowledged that “bad debate nights happen” before pivoting to offer a dichotomy, albeit quite different from the one his successor posed.

“But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” Obama said. “Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”

Trump’s view of November’s contest comes on the heels of a rally he held Friday in southeastern Virginia, where he declared “a big victory” following the previous night’s debate against Biden, “who is looking to destroy our country.”

Biden held his own rally Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, telling attendees, “I don’t debate as well as I used to.”

“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” Biden said. “I know. I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth.”

Trump faced his share of criticism for his debate performance, although it did not come close to that of his opponent. Firehouse Strategies founding partner Alex Conant gave the former president an “A-” because “he mostly let Biden self-implode,” but other debate graders were not so kind.

“It was boring,” said Democratic strategist Sasha Tirador, who gave Trump an “F.” “Neither guy moved the needle. We had a very low-energy President Biden and a very incoherent ex-President Trump.”

Another Democratic strategist, Brad Bannon, also gave Trump an “F” because “he lied from beginning to end.”

While Trump, 78, did not earn glowing reviews, it has not stopped him from going on the offensive against the 81-year-old president.

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“Joe Biden’s problem is not his age, it’s not his anything, really,” Trump said Friday. “He has no problem other than his competence. He’s grossly incompetent.”

Trump and Biden are scheduled to meet on the debate stage again on Sept. 10, almost two months before their general election rematch.

ATLANTA — Off the heels of the presidential debate, the Washington Examiner asked people in Atlanta who won between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Almost every single person said Trump, even if they hated to admit it.

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Democrats, in a state of panic, have called for Biden to step down due to his lackluster performance. The Washington Examiner asked people in Atlanta: Who should replace him? Many said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), while others said he has the same problem as Biden: being too old.

Joe Biden’s debate performance Thursday has generated a myriad of negative reviews, including from comedian Bill Maher, who said he has “seen beauty pageant contestants answer questions better” than the president.

Maher made the remark Friday on his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher as he lamented Biden’s showing against former President Donald Trump.

“Did you see the debate?” Maher opened. “In case you missed it, don’t worry — so did one of the contestants. Wow. I mean, Trump told lie after lie after lie. He never would have gotten away with that if Joe Biden was there.”

Maher also invoked Biden’s love of trains but jabbed, “Apparently not of thought.”

“I don’t want to say he s*** the bed, but his new Secret Service name is Amber Heard,” Maher said, referring to the accusation actor Johnny Depp made about his ex-wife during a 2022 defamation trial.

The comedian is one of many people who have chimed in about Biden’s performance, joining the likes of former President Barack Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris in acknowledging that it did not go well.

“Bad debate nights happen,” Obama said, while Harris said Biden’s “slow start” was “obvious to everyone.” Both, however, framed the 2024 presidential election as a choice.

“But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” Obama said. “Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”

Biden also acknowledged that “I don’t debate as well as I used to” at a campaign rally Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” Biden said. “I know. I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth.”

Maher has not been shy about criticizing the president despite his intention to vote for him come November.

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“I would vote for his head in a jar of blue liquid over Donald Trump, but … I think it’s a moot point at this point,” Maher said on an episode of his Club Random podcast earlier this month. “He’s going to f***ing lose.”

The next presidential debate, which ABC News will host, is scheduled for Sept. 10.