Biden insists ‘no one more qualified to win this race than me’ in wandering ABC interview
President Biden failed Friday to stem growing pessimism about his political future in a rambling 22-minute interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos — during which many of the same issues that marred the Democrat’s debate performance last week resurfaced.
Biden, 81, gave multiple excuses for his shocking performance at the first presidential showdown against Donald Trump, saying that he was “exhausted” and “sick” with a “bad cold” before whining that he let Trump’s remarks “distract me” — and forgetting whether he had watched footage of his meltdown.
The president also claimed that his frequent errors on the CNN debate stage in Atlanta June 27 were a “bad episode” rather than a sign of permanent deterioration, but declined to submit to a cognitive exam to prove that statement.
“Look, I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden said. “Every day, I’ve had tests. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, I’m running the world. And that’s not — it sounds like hyperbole, but we are the central nation of the world.”
However, when Stephanopoulos asked whether he had replayed the forum, Biden could only answer: “I don’t think I did, no.”
Later in the interview, Biden stiffly rejected calls from fellow Democrats that he step aside or risk a landslide loss to Trump.
“If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race’, I’d get out of the race,” he said. “But the Lord Almighty’s not coming down.”
“I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be president or win this race than me,” Biden added.
At other points, Biden pushed back against Stephanopoulos, at one point comparing his debate performance to “some bad interviews” by the “This Week” moderator.
The president also said that he doubted his approval rating had truly sunk as low as 36%, as public polling indicates, and touted the size of the crowd he drew earlier in the day at a middle school gym in Wisconsin, a number his campaign put at roughly 1,000 people.
“All the pollsters I talk to tell me it’s a toss-up,” Biden said, insisting, “I don’t believe that’s my approval rating, that’s not what our polls show.”
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.”
“How many drew crowds like I did today?” he added pridefully.
The president then said that if he loses to Trump, whom he denounced as a “congenital liar,” he would be OK with the outcome — saying, “I’d feel as long as I gave it my all and I did as good a job as I know I could do, that’s what this is about.”
One Democratic source who watched the interview told The Post that it was like seeing someone “treading water in the deep end.”
“Depressing,” said another Democrat close to the White House. “[It] felt like I was in an alternative universe.”
“It made me sad,” one House Democrat was quoted as telling NBC News. “Completely out of touch with reality and insulated from truth.”
The lawmaker added “I’ll be breaking my silence soon,” suggesting they would call on Biden to exit the race.
Multiple outlets reported Friday evening that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was set to huddle with ranking committee members Sunday afternoon to discuss the state of the Biden campaign, among other issues.
Four House Democrats — Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Mike Quigley of Illinois — have called for Biden to step aside.
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Others including Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington have said publicly they expect him to lose to Trump.
At points in the interview, Biden took long pauses and rambled without any apparent concept of what he was trying to say.
Asked if he knew how badly he was performing in the debate, Biden launched into a series of disjointed thoughts in which he ultimately tried to pin his performance on the fact that Trump “lied” repeatedly.
“Yeah, look,” Biden said before pausing.
“The whole way I prepared, nobody’s fault, mine. Nobody’s fault but mine. I — I prepared what I usually would do sitting down as I did come back with foreign leaders or National Security Council for explicit detail. And I realized partway through that, you know, all — I get quoted the New York Times had me down ten points before the debate, nine now or whatever the hell it is. The fact of the matter is, what I looked at is that he also lied 28 times. I couldn’t — I mean, the way the debate ran, not my fault, nobody else’s fault, no one else’s fault.”
Stephanopolous interjected, “It seemed you were having trouble from the first question in, even before [Trump] spoke.”
“Well, I just had a bad night,” Biden replied.
Later, Biden claimed that during the debate, Trump “was still shouting and I let it distract me.”
“I just wasn’t in control,” he said.
After the interview aired, longtime Barack Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod tweeted that Biden ” is rightfully proud of his record. But he is dangerously out-of-touch with the concerns people have about his capacities moving forward and his standing in this race. Four years ago at this time, he was 10 points ahead of Trump. Today, he is six points behind.”
The incumbent and his allies attempted other excuses in the wake of the debate disaster — with the president on Tuesday trying to blame foreign travel for his vacuous appearance, despite returning from his most recent trip abroad 13 days ahead of the showdown.
After departing Italy on June 14, Biden spent three days at his vacation home and then a full week at Camp David preparing for the June 27 debate.
Debate prep sessions began after 11 a.m. and staff set aside time for Biden to take afternoon naps, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
The interview with Stephanopoulos was widely seen as a make-or-break moment for the president’s re-election campaign — as speculation swirled about his political future and polls showed strong movement against the Democratic incumbent.
Prior to the interview, Biden had told a rally at a Wisconsin middle school that he would remain in the race, telling the crowd that “some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for.”
“They are trying to push me out of the race. Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race,” the president said — as an attendee held a sign over his shoulder saying “PASS THE TORCH JOE.”
Shortly after taping the interview, Biden’s motorcade drove by supporters who held signs such as “I heart you Joe, Bow out” — before swatting at emerging Democratic dissent when speaking with reporters under the wing of Air Force One.
Biden dismissed Sen. Mark Warner’s (D-Va.) reported effort to organize a letter calling on Biden to drop out, telling the traveling press pool, “he’s the only one.”
Asked about Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey urging him “to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope,” Biden fired back that Healey, who was one of 10 governors to meet in person with Biden on Wednesday, “didn’t say anything when I was in the room, OK?”
