President Biden, reeling from a disastrous debate performance and calls to step aside, addressed a Black church service in Pennsylvania on Sunday, acknowledging the “world’s looking to America.”

Speaking from a stage at Mount Airy Church of God in Christ in northwest Philadelphia, the 81-year-old Biden laughed off concerns about his age, joking, “I know I look 40” but “I’ve been doing this a long time.”

“I, honest to God, have never been more optimistic about America’s future if we stick together,” Biden said.

The president, later on in his remarks, also addressed the upcoming NATO summit in Washington, D.C.

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL DODGES QUESTIONS ABOUT BIDEN’S MENTAL FITNESS

“I’m about to host the NATO nations in Washington. We put them together,” Biden said. “The world’s looking to us. Not a joke. The world is looking to America not to carry their burden, but to lead their hopes.” 

“When I ran for the first time for president, I said something basic. I said, we have to bring back dignity and hope in America, number one,” the president added, wrapping up his remarks. 

“Number two, we have to give working class and middle class people, like the family I came from, a shot and build the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down,” Biden said. “And thirdly, we must unite America again. That’s my goal. That’s what we’re going to do. God bless you all and may God bless our troops.” 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was asked during an appearance on CBS’ “Face The Nation” about whether Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was accurate in voicing concerns that world leaders don’t trust Biden to be in command of the job. 

President Biden and Bishop Ernest C. Morris Sr. during a church service at Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

TOP WHITE HOUSE AIDE URGES STAFF TO TUNE OUT ‘NOISE’ AND FOCUS ON GOVERNING DURING DEBATE FALLOUT

“I think it’s important for NATO to stay out of that kind of domestic discussion,” Stoltenberg said. “They’re of course important for the United States, but NATO should not be part of it. What matters for NATO is the decisions. What to do together. And just for instance, on defense spending, which has been a big issue for the United States for many years under different presidents. When we made the pledge 10 years ago to increase defense spending, only three allies spent 2% of GDP on defense. This year, it’s 23 allies.” 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks with President Biden during a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

Biden and his NATO counterparts are meeting in Washington this week to mark the 75th anniversary of the world’s biggest security organization just as Russia presses its advantage on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The three-day summit, which begins Tuesday, will focus on ways to reassure Ukraine of NATO’s enduring support and offer some hope to its war-weary citizens that their country might survive the biggest land conflict in Europe in decades. NATO’s day-to-day work is led by Stoltenberg, the former prime minister of Norway, until he is replaced as secretary-general on Oct. 1 by outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

In American politics, we tend to favor the meteoric rise over the slow and steady climb, the big voices who rock the boat over the quiet ones who make themselves known behind the scenes.

Sen. Alex Padilla took the long path. The San Fernando Valley native and MIT grad has held elected office since 1999, when he won a seat on the L.A. City Council at age 26. In the years since, he has risen to progressively more prominent roles as a state senator and secretary of state. Then in 2020, his ally Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him to replace Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as U.S. senator.

Being the consummate team player defined Padilla’s ascent. He offered a quiet confidence and impressive discipline, rarely departing from script. Some would call him boring. Now, on politics’ biggest stage as a representative for 40 million Americans, his demeanor hasn’t changed.

But the scale of the tasks before him and the crises he faces certainly have. That became abundantly clear when, shortly before he was easily elected to a full term in 2022, three members of the L.A. City Council were caught on tape making coarse and sometimes racist remarks about their colleagues.

Padilla had worked closely with the offending council members. He had managed one of their campaigns. He went to high school with another, and his brother had been her chief of staff.

But days after The Times broke the story, Padilla stuck his neck out — becoming one of the first and most prominent elected officials to call on them all to resign.

Being the state’s first Latino senator weighed heavily on him when he made the decision, he said.

“I knew them personally and worked with them up close. But as hard as it was, knowing them personally, and as hard as it was knowing sort of the role I play and where I fit into all this, ultimately what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong.”

Alex Padilla, photographed at the Los Angeles Times in El Segundo on Oct. 9.

His close relationship to then-City Council President Nury Martinez was well known. So his quick stand didn’t go unnoticed in California political circles. He said that day he was “appalled at the racist dehumanizing remarks.”

His ties to Martinez and many other Latino politicians underscore his role as one of the architects of a political machine in the San Fernando Valley and beyond. Take, for example, Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Pacoima), who isn’t seeking reelection this year after nearly three decades in public office. Padilla was a roommate in Washington and managed his first campaign, while the woman running to replace Cárdenas — Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood) — went to high school and college with Padilla and received his endorsement shortly after announcing her candidacy.

None of this is coincidence and it reflects how the engineer by training has methodically aided his allies’ ascents.

Padilla has also stepped into the void created by the decline and then passing of his colleague Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). While in office, Feinstein pushed for billions of dollars to address climate change and fund infrastructure projects.

Padilla, 51, is now picking up that mantle.

“A lot of the day in, day out of getting things moving along,” he said, “is behind the scenes.”

With President Biden’s decidedly lacking debate performance and subsequent polling downturn, what was an already difficult fight to preserve a Democratic majority in the Senate could be reliant on a resurgence of voters willing to select candidates of different parties for various positions. 

Democrats face a particularly difficult Senate election map, with multiple incumbents in swing states seeking another term. They also only have a remarkably slim 51-49 majority over their Republican counterparts, who enjoy a much more favorable map this cycle.

UNDERDOG DEM USING DAVE CHAPPELLE SHOW TO GAIN EDGE IN PIVOTAL SWING STATE

“If a candidate feels like the presidential candidate is going to lose his or her state, naturally they have to figure out ways to create distance between themselves and the presidential candidate,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

TAMMY BALDWIN WILL STICK TO STATE TOUR INSTEAD OF JOINING BIDEN DURING WISCONSIN VISIT

From left: Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.; former President Trump; and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. (Getty Images)

According to data compiled by the center, split-ticket voting across the presidency and the Senate was most popular in the 1970s and 1980s and more often benefited Democrats, who have been able to frequently score Senate seats in states where Republican presidents won. But the practice has been declining in recent decades. 

Per Kondik, this downward trend could make things harder for vulnerable Democrats in the current environment. 

PRESSURE MOUNTS ON BATTLEGROUND STATE DEMS AFTER BIDEN DEBATE DISASTER

From left: Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont.; Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; and Bob Casey, D-Pa. (Getty Images )

The campaigns of Senate Democrats in tough races will likely look different from those of the president or of a Democrat in a safer seat, according to one expert. “As long as Senate Democrats continue to run ahead of Biden in their states, the candidates are likely to stop short of completely linking themselves to Biden to avoid being pulled down,” said Madison Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin.

GOP SENATE CANDIDATE TIES OPPONENT TO BIDEN DEBATE: BOB CASEY KNEW

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., speaks during the Inaugural Independence Dinner in Philadelphia on Nov. 1, 2019. (Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“But the calculus is probably different in swing states such as Pennsylvania than in red states such as Montana,” he explained. “As a political misfit in his state, Jon Tester has always needed to portray an identity that is somewhat independent of the national Democratic Party, so 2024 will be no different. In contrast, Bob Casey’s fate depends more on Biden having a good showing in Pennsylvania, so he will probably remain an enthusiastic supporter.”

Republican strategist Doug Heye noted, “No elected Democrat — safe seat or in-play — wants to be first to state the obvious about President Biden’s state of health,” referencing the relative silence of at-risk Democrats amid Biden’s poor debate performance against former President Trump last month.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.