The truth is that President Joe Biden’s interview with George Stepanopoulos was never going to be the magic bullet his allies hoped it might be.
If his debate with Donald Trump last week was the final nail in his political coffin, the days that have followed it have seen a metric ton of earth heaped on top of it.
Now that the president’s decline cannot possibly be denied, the dam has broken.
Biden, as it turns out, can no longer recall the names of longtime family friends or keep up with his peers across the globe.
What to know about the fallout from President Biden's debate performance:
- President Biden’s poor performance in the first 2024 presidential debate has left even some Democrats unsure of his fitness for office and future as the party’s candidate.
- Former President Barack Obama admitted that Biden had a “bad” debate, while his rival former President Donald Trump suggested that he was in a “trance” and “choked.”
- Biden told a crowd at a North Carolina rally the day after the debate that he doesn’t “debate as well as I used to” — but insisted that he can still “do this job.”
- The New York Times editorial board called on the president to serve the country by dropping out of the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a similar editorial a day later.
- Biden gathered with his family at Camp David to assess the campaign’s future, with his son Hunter reportedly pushing for him to stay in the race. Family members questioned whether the president’s top advisers should be fired after the disastrous debate.
- In a pre-taped interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden claimed that his “bad episode” at the debate was the result of a cold and not any cognitive issues.
- Biden has rejected calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats, insisting to Stephanopoulos that he is the most qualified to win the election. At a Wisconsin rally, he declared that he is “running and going to win again.”
His staff is leaking like a faucet, elected Democrats are openly calling for him to step aside, and the media institutions that had been insulating him from criticism are now holding nothing back.
In a bombshell piece for New York magazine, Olivia Nuzzi wrote Biden had been struggling through noticeably bad and enjoying some good days at least as far back as 2020.
“Good days” aren’t good enough for a commander-in-chief.
But even if they were, the following question still stands: Where are they?
According to Biden’s team, last Thursday was a bad night; this Friday night was another.
During his conversation with Stephanopoulos, the president failed to enunciate more than two sentences’ worth of words distinctly and reprised the blank stare that so alarmed the country during the debate.
- Watch Biden’s worst moments during the presidential debate
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- Democrats panicked at Biden’s debate debacle — and aren’t fooling anyone as they now pretend everything’s fine
- Trump inches ahead of Biden nationally after prez’s disastrous debate: new poll
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His relaxed grip on reality was exemplified by more than just his appearance and delivery.
Asked if he had watched the debate, a confused Biden replied, “I don’t think I did.”
Asked about Virginia Senator Mark Warner’s effort to get him to stand down, Biden seemed to suggest that Warner was jealous because he had run against him for the Democratic presidential nomination.
That never happened.
He went on to insist against every shred of available evidence that the presidential race was a “toss-up,” blame his debate performance on crosstalk, and defend himself by testily suggesting that Stephanopoulos had conducted bad interviews over the course of his career.
The post-interview analysis on ABC was grim.
Jonathan Karl reported that “nothing” about it had calmed the nerves of his party’s political class, and it even raised “new concerns.”
Martha Raddatz said that the most glowing review she had heard was that it “wasn’t as bad” as one Democrat expected.
A third panelist delivered the most crushing blow of all: That the “movement against him” was only “growing” on Friday night.
Nothing short of a home run could have revived Biden’s campaign.
If the debate was a three-pitch strikeout, his sit-down with Stephanopoulos was a weak ground out to first base.
Good days are what Biden and his inner circle are clinging to.
Can you remember the last one?