Joe Biden insists that his disastrous debate last week against Donald Trump was just “a bad night” because he was “exhausted” and “sick.” That is what the US president explained in the interview broadcast this Friday by ABC News, conducted by George Stephanopoulos, former senior adviser to Bill Clinton turned star presenter. The president has answered the interview without lapses, hesitations or missed phrases like those in the debate. On his trip to Madison (Wisconsin), when he was asked if he was considering withdrawing his candidacy, he replied: “I completely rule it out.” He then opened the door to divine intervention: only the “Lord Almighty” can prevent him from trying to be re-elected president.
Biden’s image is so bad after the CNN debate in Atlanta that his campaign had made it a major challenge to give an interview. In February 2020, when his Democratic presidential primary campaign seemed to be going nowhere, Biden already gave an interview to Stephanopoulos. Whether it was because of the interview or not, he made a comeback in the primaries, won the nomination and then the presidential election. Four years later, the president has returned to his go-to interviewer to try to deal with criticism that questions his mental acuity after last week’s disastrous debate against Donald Trump.
Biden has been insisting for days that he is still in the race. “I am running and I am going to win again,” he said at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday. “I am still in the race. I am going to beat Donald Trump. I am going to beat him again in 2020.” [sic]”He added, in another of his mistakes, on which the spotlight is now.
In a 22-minute interview recorded at a Madison school and broadcast uncut, Stephanopoulos began by raising the legitimate question expressed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: whether what happened in the debate was “an episode or a condition,” a word that is also used as a synonym for illness. “It was a bad episode,” Biden replied. “There was no indication of any serious illness. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparation and [fue] “a bad night.”
The interviewer recalled that Biden spent almost a week locked up preparing at Camp David, a presidential residence in the Maryland countryside, and asked him why that wasn’t enough. “Because I was sick. I felt terrible,” Biden replied. “In fact, I asked the doctors who were with me if they had tested me for Covid because they were trying to figure out what was wrong with me. They tested me to see if I had an infection or not, you know, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold,” he explained.
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Biden also took refuge in the fact that Trump “lied 28 times” and was difficult to counter, but Stephanopoulos pointed out that the president was already wrong in his first response, before Trump even opened his mouth. “Well, I just had a bad night,” Biden insisted.
The president gave his first televised interview since the CNN debate and it was seen as a risky moment, but also as an opportunity to clean up his image after last week’s debacle. Biden has not foundered this time. He has answered the questions, he has not gone blank and he has made his points, although he has occasionally failed to complete his arguments. In any case, it has been a relatively friendly interrogation, carried out by a declared Democrat. It is unlikely that it has served to dispel the doubts that have been installed in party colleagues, voters and donors about Biden’s ability to face a second term that would end at 86 years of age.
Four congressmen have already mobilised to ask Biden to hand over the baton. The president refuses, downplays these movements and remains confident in himself. “I don’t think there is anyone more qualified than me to be president or win this race,” he said in the interview. At the Madison airport, in front of a group of journalists, he went further: “You have been wrong about everything, until now. You were wrong in 2020. You were wrong in 2022: they were going to annihilate us. Do you remember the ‘red wave’? You were wrong about 2023. So look, we’ll see,” he challenged his interlocutors. Biden hopes to get back on his feet.
Without neurological tests
Stephanopoulos asked the president if he would be willing to undergo independent neurological testing to certify his mental acuity. “Look, I have a cognitive test every day,” he replied, referring to the tasks he faces daily as president. “Every day I have tests. Everything I do.”
“I guess a good way to judge me is now that we have the NATO summit here in the United States next week. Come and listen. See what they say,” he said, apparently alluding to the leaders of member countries.
Biden has insisted that he is not in a more fragile state and has assured that he is “still in good shape.” He has said that he is “continuously evaluated” by his personal doctors and that they “do not hesitate” to tell him if something goes wrong. “Can I run the 100 in 10 seconds? No. But I am still in good shape,” he said. When the interviewer asked him about doubts about his ability in a second term, Biden repeatedly referred to the achievements of the first.
Although the president told reporters accompanying him that he completely ruled out withdrawing and making way for another candidate, Biden, a practicing Catholic, left one last door open. “If he becomes convinced that he cannot defeat Donald Trump, will he withdraw?” the ABC News presenter asked him. “It depends. If the Lord Almighty himself comes down and tells me, I could do it,” Biden replied.
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