US President Joe Biden, fighting to save his endangered reelection effort, has used a highly anticipated TV interview to suggest he is the most qualified candidate to be president while blaming his disastrous debate performance on a "bad episode".
Biden repeatedly rejected the notion of taking an independent medical evaluation in Friday's interview that would show voters he is up for serving another term in office.
"Look, I have a cognitive test every single day," Biden told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, referring to the presidential tasks he faces daily in a rigorous job. "Every day, I’ve had tests. Everything I do," the US president re-iterated strongly.
Biden made it through the 22-minute interview without any major blunders but it appeared unlikely to fully tamp down concerns about his fitness for another four years and his ability to defeat Donald Trump in November.
The drawn-out spectacle could benefit Biden’s efforts to remain in the race by limiting the Democratic party’s options to replace him.
'Listening to instincts'
During the interview, Biden insisted he was not more frail than he was in 2020. He said he undergoes "ongoing assessment" by his personal doctors and they "don't hesitate to tell me" if something is wrong.
As for the debate, "I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing," Biden said.
Biden suggested that Trump’s disruptions — while standing just a few feet from him — had rankled him: "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’m not blaming it on that. But I realised that I just wasn't in control."
Asked how he might turn the race around, Biden argued that one key would be large and energetic rallies like the one he held on Friday in Wisconsin. When pressed that Trump routinely draws larger crowds, the president laid into his opponent.
"Trump is a pathological lair," Biden said, accusing Trump of bungling the federal response to the Covid pandemic and failing to create jobs. "You ever see something that Trump did that benefited someone else and not him?"
Biden also insisted he was the “most qualified” to lead Democrats against Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Asked what it would take for him to quit the 2024 presidential race, Biden told ABC: "If the Lord Almighty came down and said, 'Joe, get outta the race,' I'd get outta the race".
Internal party frustrations
The interview, paired with a weekend campaign in battleground Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, was part of Biden's rigorous effort to course correct from his debate performance last week.
But internal party frustrations continued to fester, with one influential Democratic senator working on a nascent push that would encourage the president to exit the race and Democrats quietly chatting about where they would go next if the president drops out — or what it would mean if he stays in.
"It’s President Biden’s decision whether or not he remains in the race. Voters select our nominee and they chose him," said California Rep. Ro Khanna, a member of the Biden campaign's national advisory board that works as a gathering of his top surrogates. "Now, he needs to prove to those voters that he is up to the job and that will require more than just this one interview.”
'I beat Trump'
Still, in Wisconsin, Biden was focused on proving his capacity to remain as president. At a rally of hundreds of supporters, he acknowledged his subpar debate performance but insisted, “I am running, and I'm going to win again.”
"I beat Donald Trump," a forceful Biden said, as the crowd gathered in a local middle school cheered and waved campaign signs. "I will beat him again."
The interview with ABC could be a watershed moment for Biden, who is under pressure to bow out of the campaign after his rocky debate performance against Trump ignited concern that the 81-year-old Democrat is not up for the job for another four years.
While private angst among Democratic lawmakers, donors and strategists is running deep, most in the party have held public fire as they wait to see if the president can restore confidence with his weekend travel and his handling of the interview.
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