WAUSAU, WIS.— In a much-anticipated TV interview on Friday, President Joe Biden tried to save his re-election bid, but he refused to get an independent medical exam that would show voters he is healthy enough to serve another term. Instead, he blamed his terrible performance in the debate on a “bad episode” and said there were “no indications of any serious condition.”
“Look, I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. He was talking about the difficult tasks he has to do every day at his job. “I’ve had tests every day.” Everything I do.
Biden got through the 22-minute interview without making any major mistakes that would hurt his already weak campaign even more. However, it didn’t look like it would fully calm concerns about his age and fitness for another four years or his ability to beat Trump in November.
It put Biden in a tough spot with a vocal part of his party, with only four months until the election and only a few weeks until the Democratic National Convention. The long show could help Biden’s chances of staying in the race by making it harder for the party to find a replacement for him. But it could also take attention away from important efforts to make the 2024 election a vote on Trump.
When asked about it, Biden said he wasn’t any weaker than he was in 2020. One of his doctors told him that they “don’t hesitate to tell me” if something is wrong because they are always checking on him.
“Can I do the 100 in 10 seconds flat?” Not at all. “But I’m still in good shape,” Biden said.
When it came to getting ready for the debate, Biden said, “I didn’t listen to my instincts.”
When Trump interrupted him while he was only a few feet away, Biden said, “I realised that, even when I was answering a question and they turned his mic off, he was still shouting, and I let it distract me.” I don’t think that’s what caused it. However, I understood that I wasn’t in charge.
Biden said that big, loud rallies like the one he held in Wisconsin on Friday would be a key part of his plan to turn around the race. When asked about the fact that Trump usually gets bigger crowds, the president made fun of his opponent.
Biden called Trump a “pathological lair” and said that he had messed up the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic and failed to create jobs. “Have you ever seen something Trump did that helped someone else but not himself?”
Biden also said he was the “most qualified” person to lead the Democrats against Trump, who is expected to be the Republican nominee for president.
Along with a weekend campaign in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the interview was part of Biden’s hard work to turn things around after how he did in last week’s debate. But anger within the party continued to grow. One powerful Democratic senator was working on a new effort to get the president to drop out of the race, and Democrats were quietly talking about what they would do next if the president did drop out or what it would mean if he stayed in.
“President Biden is the only one who can decide if he stays in the race or not.” The people chose our nominee, and that person is Joe Biden,” said Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who is on the Biden campaign’s national advisory board, which is made up of his top supporters. “Now he needs to show those voters that he can do the job, which will take more than this one interview.”
Still, Biden was focused on showing that he could stay in office in Wisconsin. When asked if he would stop running for office, he told reporters that he was “definitely ruling that out” and that he thought he could stay in office for another four years. At a rally with hundreds of supporters, he admitted that he didn’t do very well in the debate but said, “I’m running, and I’m going to win again.”
A large group of people in a nearby middle school cheered and waved campaign signs as Biden said, “I beat Donald Trump.” “I’m going to beat him again.”
Biden, who was reading from a teleprompter, attacked his likely Republican opponent right away. He went after Trump by bringing up the fact that Trump had once said, “George Washington’s army won the revolution by taking control of the airports from the British.”
Biden went on, “Talk about me misspeaking,” which made everyone laugh.
Biden tried to turn the questions about his age around by asking the crowd if he was “too old” to have passed gun laws, created jobs, and helped people pay off their student loans. He also said he’d do more if he were elected president again.
The interview with ABC could be a turning point for Biden, who is under a lot of pressure to drop out of the race after his rough debate performance against Trump. Some people think the 81-year-old Democrat is not ready for another four years in office.
Democratic lawmakers, donors, and strategists are very upset behind closed doors, but most in the party have kept quiet while they wait to see if the president can rebuild trust with his trip over the weekend and how he handled the interview.
Three people who were familiar with the effort but asked to remain anonymous because they were talking about private conversations say that Sen. Mark Warner has been talking to other senators all this week about whether to ask Biden to drop out of the race. The Virginia Democrat’s actions stand out because he is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and is known as a Biden-supporting lawmaker who gets along with people from both parties. The Washington Post was the first to report on Warner’s work.
The plan is still being worked out. One person who knows about Warner’s work said that enough Senate Democrats are worried about Biden’s ability to run for re-election that they will do something, but no one could agree on what that would be yet. Some Democrats in the Senate might get together as soon as Monday to talk about what to do next.
A person who was present at the meeting but asked to remain anonymous said that the top Democrats on House committees are going to meet virtually on Sunday to talk about what’s going on.
At the same time, at least four Democrats in the House have asked Biden to step down as the nominee. Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, and Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona are the others. Mass. Gov. Maura Healey said in a carefully worded statement Friday that Biden now has to decide on “the best way forward.” She didn’t go that far, though.
“In the next few days, I urge him to carefully consider whether he remains our best hope to beat Donald Trump,” Healey said.
There were also some unhappy people at Biden’s campaign rally on Friday. As the president came out, one supporter stood on stage and waved a sign that said “Pass the torch, Joe.” Some people also told him to move on when they saw his motorcade at the middle school.
But some people were happy. Rebecca Green, an environmental scientist from Madison who is 52 years old, said she felt safe around Biden’s energy. She said, “We were just waiting for him to come out strong and fight again, like we know he will.”
A lot of Democratic lawmakers are very angry because they are hearing from angry constituents at home this holiday week. They are also not sure if Biden should stay or go. This week, there were a lot of heated conversations among House Democrats behind closed doors after word got out that some of them were writing public letters telling the president to drop out of the race.
But other Democrats in the House fought back hard.
According to Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat and a powerful member of the Congressional Black Caucus, any “leader” who signs a letter asking President Biden to drop out needs to change their priorities and stop smearing this amazing real leader who has done great things for our country.
Biden seems to have spent more time with his family while trying to show that he’s still the best candidate for the Democratic nomination in November.
Two Democrats close to the White House who asked to remain anonymous to talk about the sensitive matter say that Hunter Biden’s constant presence in the West Wing since the debate has made a lot of staffers feel uncomfortable.
A lot of staff members think it’s strange that Hunter Biden, who was just convicted of felony gun charges a few weeks ago, is now giving his father more advice. They say it’s a questionable choice.
Even though there is a lot of uncertainty, Biden’s campaign for re-election is moving forward with big plans. It plans to go along with his live events with a new $50 million ad campaign this month. The ads will run during times with a lot of viewers, like the Summer Olympics, which start on July 26 in Paris.
This month, Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Jill Biden, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff are planning to visit every battleground state. On Sunday, Biden will be in Pennsylvania. In a memo released Friday, the campaign also stressed that Biden would take part in “frequent off-the-cuff moments.” These were once a big part of the friendly, hand-shake-loving politician’s career, but they have become less common since he became president.
For Biden, every second is important right now to get back the confidence he lost after his shaky debate performance in Atlanta last week. Yet, the president kept making mistakes that made things worse.
Three people who were not authorised to speak publicly about the private meeting say that Biden told them that he needs to get more sleep and limit his evening activities so that he is well-rested for work. The meeting was thrown together quickly and included more than 20 Democratic governors.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for the White House, tried to downplay those comments by saying that Biden “works around the clock” but also “recognises the importance of striking a balance and taking care of himself.”
Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, who was there, said that Biden “certainly engaged with us on complicated matters.”
“But on the other hand, he needs to reassure not only Democratic governors but also the American people,” Beshear said.
