'I screwed up,' admits Biden as he vows to fight on despite poor polls

Joe Biden has told a radio show he "screwed up" and made a "mistake" in last week's debate against Donald Trump, but vowed to stay in the election race, even as a series of polls show him trailing the former president by about six points.

- Edward Helmore

In two interviews conducted on Wednesday and aired yesterday with local radio stations in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the president urged voters to judge him on his time in the White House.

"I had a bad night," Biden told the Milwaukee radio host Earl Ingram. "And the fact of the matter is that I screwed up. I made a mistake. That's 90 minutes on stage - look at what I've done in three and a half years."

To Ingram's largely black audience, Biden pointed to achievements during his presidency that increased representation.

"I picked a black woman to be my vice-president. I've appointed the first black woman to be a supreme court justice," Biden said. "I've appointed more black judges, more black women judges, than every other president in American history combined."

Biden also attacked Trump for comments the former president made about black workers during their TV debate a week ago, when Trump said migrant workers could be taking as many as 20m black jobs.

"He's done terrible things in the community, and he has about as much interest and concern for black, minority communities as the man on the moon does," Biden said.

He is to hold rallies in both states this weekend. He will also give another interview today to ABC News, and another to Good Morning America over the weekend. The president reportedly told a key ally that the next few days of public appearances are critical for whether he can successfully make a case for his reelection to the public.