Former US President Barack Obama has thrown his weight behind President Joe Biden amidst the lower confidence ratings he got after Thursday’s presidential debate.

Biden occasionally stammered, spoke incoherently, and delivered a slurred, throaty speech during the debate against Donald Trump, his immediate predecessor, who is seeking a return to the White House.

The president’s retorts were also perceived as feeble by many analysts.

Analysts said Biden was “deeply vulnerable” and his voice was “shaky,” leaving Democrats worried that they could be throwing away the presidency if he remains at the top of the ticket.

Expressing support in a post shared on X on Friday night, Obama said bad debates happen.

Biden served as vice-president under Obama from 2009 to 2017.

“Trust me, I know. 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,” the former president 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 had earlier defended himself at a rally, insisting he could do the job despite his reduced alertness.

“I don’t walk as easily as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, and I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know is how to tell the truth,” the 81-year-old told a cheering crowd, chanting “Four more years.”.

The US presidential election is slated to be held on November 5.

John King, CNN’s chief national correspondent, says the Democratic party is looking to replace President Joe Biden as its presumptive nominee ahead of its national convention in August.

Biden sparred with former US President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, on Friday, in a debate hosted by CNN.

The incumbent’s speech was at times slurred, throaty, incoherent, he stuttered on occasion, and his ripostes came across as weak.

At one point, as the candidates debated on border closure and immigration, a gloating Trump said: “I really don’t understand what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”

Analysing the performances of both candidates afterwards, all the CNN panellists submitted that Biden had done himself little favours on the night.

“It was a game changing debate in the sense that right now as we speak, there is a deep, a wide and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic party,” said King.

“The panic started minutes into the debate and continues right now. It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, it involves fund-raisers.

“And they are having conversations about the president’s performance which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party in the ticket. They are having conversations about what they should do about it.

“Some of those conversations include should we go to the White House and ask the president to step aside? Other conversations are about should prominent Democrats go public with that call? Because they think this debate was so terrible.

“They do say, in moments in the debate later, the president got better and got his footing. But then in the end, even his closing statement was a little halty. The contrast between the two candidates was stark.”

Abby Phillip, CNN anchor and a senior political correspondent who anchors CNN NewsNight, said Biden’s performance was “problematic” and “damaging”.

Other panellists said Biden was “deeply vulnerable”, his voice was “shaky”, and that Democrats are worried that they could be throwing away the presidency if Biden remains top of the ticket.

Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, sparred on the Russia-Ukraine war, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, treatment of veterans, abortion, taxes, Medicare, inflation, Afghanistan, and America’s standing in the world — with the Republican repeatedly putting the Democrat on the defensive.

Trump was US president from 2017 to 2021. He lost his re-election bid to Biden and challenged the outcome of the vote in an unprecedented manner.

His supporters infamously invaded the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021, as Trump insisted that the election was stolen from him.

The European Union’s (EU) top court has fined Hungary €200 million over the country’s failure to comply with the union’s asylum policies.

According to the EU law, everyone fleeing persecution in their home countries has the right to ask for international protection, and cannot be evicted if there is a serious risk of death or torture.

In a statement on Thursday, the court said Hungary “deliberately” avoided applying EU policy and its failure “constitutes a serious infringement of EU law”.

The court added that the country violated EU laws by forcing asylum seekers to travel to Belgrade or Kyiv to apply for a travel permit to enter Hungary.

The court also issued a penalty of €1 million daily until Hungary changes its policy.

Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, on Thursday, in a post on X, described the decision as “outrageous and unacceptable”.

“The EU Court of Justice’ decision to fine Hungary with 200M euros plus 1M euros daily for defending the borders of the European Union is outrageous and unacceptable,” the prime minister said.

“It seems that illegal migrants are more important to the Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens.”