In a 22-minute interview Friday night, ABC George Stephanopoulos sit down with the president Joe Bidengive it to him opportunity to answer some of voters’ most pressing questions question: What happened in debate And at 81, is Biden mentally fit to lead this country?
Their conversation, filmed in Madison, Wisconsin, comes just over a week after Biden and former president Donald Trump face off in Atlanta in the first presidential debate of the election season. In after that of the event—including a hoarse and meandering Biden, a series of lies from Trump, and a lack of reality check from CNN executives Jake Tapper And Dana Bash—Democrats across the country are suffering televisionIN opinion pageand in closed meetings on whether Biden should run in November.
Stephanopoulos wasted no time asking about Biden’s performance in Atlanta. After a brief thank you between the two men, a reunion at the 2020 town hall conversationHe began, “Let’s start with the argument. You and your team have said, said that you had a bad night.”
“Absolutely,” Biden said with a smile, noting that he didn’t think he had watched the entire show.
Biden said his bad night was because “I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in preparing.” Throughout the interview, Biden repeatedly said the debate was “Nobody’s fault but mine,” “nobody’s fault, mine,” “my fault, nobody’s fault, nobody’s fault.”
“Are you convinced that only you can beat him?” Stephanopoulos asked, after Biden detailed the Trump campaign’s future ambitions—many of which are state in the GOP strategy playbook Project 2025.
“I convinced myself of two things. I am the most qualified person to beat him, and I know how to get things done,” Biden replied.
“If you believe you cannot beat Donald Trump, will you resign?” Stephanopoulos pressed.
Biden laughed, smiled broadly and said, “If God Almighty came down and told me that, I could do it,” then added, “God Almighty wouldn’t come down. I mean, these hypotheticals, George.”
“It’s no longer hypothetical,” Stephanopoulos replied.
On Saturday morning, Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig became The fifth House Democrat (and the first battleground House Democrat) to call on Biden to withdraw. Craig joins Reps. Mike Quigley from Illinois, Lloyd Doggett from Texas, Raul Grijalva from Arizona, and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts.
“I have great respect for President Biden’s decades of service to our country and his unwavering commitment to making our country a better place,” Craig declare “However, given what I saw and heard from the President at last week’s debate in Atlanta, coupled with the President’s lack of a strong response following that debate, I do not believe the President can campaign effectively and win against Donald Trump.”
“If we truly believe that Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans must be stopped,” she continued, “there is only a small window of time left to ensure we have a candidate best equipped to make the case and win. The future of our country is bigger than any of us. It is up to the President from here.”
Virginia Senator Mark Warner, The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also has approached Senate Democrats plan to meet on Biden’s future as the party’s presidential nominee.
“Well, Mark is a good man,” Biden said when Stephanopoulos outlined the senator’s plans. “Mark and I have different views. I respect him.”
Asked repeatedly whether Biden would be willing to undergo an independent medical evaluation, including neurological and cognitive testing, and release the results to the American people, Biden dodged the question, saying, “I have to take a cognitive test every day. I take it every day. Everything I do.” “I’m running the world,” he continued, “which sounds like an exaggeration, but we’re the essential nation of the world.”
