Biden Dodges Calls For Cognitive Test In George Stephanopoulos Interview; “I’m Running The World,” POTUS Proclaims As More Voices Worry He Can’t Beat Trump
“Every day I have that test,” insisted Joe Biden tonight on ABC of the calls for the president taking a cognitive test . “Not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world, and that’s not hyperbole.”
The president was speaking to George Stephanopoulos in a damage control interview that aired in primetime.
Touting his legislative and foreign policy achievements, Biden consistently deflected a “Yes” or “No” answer about taking a test of his mental and intellectual abilities throughout the less than 30-minute interview.
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“Watch me … there’s a lot of time left in this campaign,” a healthier than usual looking Biden said in one response, shrugging off “these hypotheticals.”
Asked directly by Stephanopoulos if he still thought he could still beat the poll-topping much indicated Donald Trump, Biden quipped, “I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think I could.” Biden stated that convicted felon and jury recognized sexual abuser Trump spewed a series of lies during the debate. Biden also said, as he and others have said before many times before, that Trump and his MAGA crowd were a threat to the essence of American democracy.
Asked if he would leave the race if top Congressional Democratic leaders came to him and requested he move aside, Biden replied, I’m not going to answer that question, it’s not going to happen.”
Saying he did the best he could, Biden was also oddly cavalier — bordering on arrogant — when characterizing how he would feel and his responsibility if “congenital liar” Trump got back in the White House in November, instituting his openly oppressive and retaliatory aims.
Hyped over the past few days and teased earlier today with a clip on the network’s World News Tonight, the unscripted, live-to-tape sit-down is the big play by the White House to silence demands for the 81-year-old Biden to exit the race against Trump. A cataclysmic June 27 debate performance by Biden against his predecessor and current rival saw the incumbent stumbling, rambling and often unable to finish a sentence. Tonight was the biggest attempt to reset the White House has instituted so far.
“I realized I just wasn’t in control,” Biden said near the top of the interview, blaming the former president’s alleged ranting when his microphone was muted, calling it a distraction.
While an increasingly stubborn Biden has declared again and again he will not step aside, aides and later the president himself claimed he had a cold the night of the debate. That cold was supposedly why it was a “bad night” for the candidate. In a clip released earlier Friday, Biden said “I was feeling terrible” in the days before the meet-up with Trump live on CNN
“Matter of fact, the docs with me, I asked if they did a Covid test because they’re trying to figure out what was wrong,” the president added in explanation. “They did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, you know, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold.”
Cold or more, Biden’s wandering words and distant look have been seen before over the last 12 months by media and contributors. Of course, with the stresses of office, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, DC political wars and the rematch with the authoritarian Trump, it is no sin for the seasoned Biden to feel the weight of the office and job of leader of the Free World.
Tonight, with a more energetic stance than usual, Biden still had a few instances of tapering off in his own stories and sentences. For one, the president seemed to muddle up New York Times poll numbers so they had him up a touch after the debate, when the opposite was true.
Also Biden tripped up on another occasion that might come back to haunt him more over the next few days.
Biden made an error when he was asked about Sen. Mark Warner and his reported effort to mobilize other senators on the president getting out of the race, Biden said that “Mark is a good man. He also tried to get the nomination too.” While it is true Sen. Warner did seem to be preparing for a White House bid in 2006 when he was Governor of Virginia, but never actually ran for president. What is true is the Old Dominion Democrat is an influential voice in the upper chamber that was Biden’s political home for decades, and could bring others onboard.
Originally set to be broadcast on Sunday after a weekend of teasing clips, Biden’s interview with ABC News was arranged on Tuesday. The interview with Stephanopoulos, rescheduled on July 3 for tonight, came amid frantic calls from donors, pundits and others that he had to sit for a major unscripted network one on one, in part to explain what happened but also to show that his debate performance was not a sign of cognitive decline.
But the announcement of the interview, as well as a press conference during next week’s NATO Summit, has not stopped the calls from some major donors in Hollywood and elsewhere as well as Congressional lawmakers that he get out of the race. Recent polls have suggested that Biden is falling further behind Trump were the elephant in the room when the president met with Democratic governors earlier this week to ease their personal and electoral concerns.
As Stephanopoulos noted, as damaging to Biden’s case have been the series of stories, in The New York Times and The Washington Post, in which anonymous sources have suggested that the president’s faltering performance was not an anomaly. The sources described other episodes where Biden lost his train of thought or was forgetful.
With Trump taunting Friday his opponent with calls for another debate ASAP without moderators, It’s not just donors but other Hollywood supporters who are closely watching Biden’s interview. One major supporter said that there has been a feeling that campaign efforts overlook that people saw what they truly saw.
As Democratic House members have just scheduled a Sunday virtual meeting on what went down with Biden today, tonight’s interview will likely do little to counter that reality.
After the interview concluded, Stephanopoulos told viewers that ABC had reached out to Trump about a similar sit-down, but nothing yet on that front. Of additional note, as the Biden interview was airing Vice President Kamala Harris was heading to New Orleans to speak at the Essence fest in the Big Easy – words that will be taking on greater significance than ever right now. Out of sight tomorrow, Biden has two campaign events in Pennsylvania on July 7 – both open to the media.