U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin, on July 5, 2024.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
US President Joe Biden insisted on Friday that his devastating debate performance against former President Donald Trump was just a “bad night” and not an indication of a more serious health condition.
“I was exhausted,” Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in his first face-to-face television interview since his rough and rambling debate last week.
“I didn't listen to my instincts, in terms of preparation, and I had a bad night,” said Biden, who described his performance as a “bad episode.”
When Stephanopoulos pointed out that Biden had returned from a foreign policy trip to Europe about 11 days before the debate and had spent six days at Camp David before, Biden said, “I was sick, I was terrified.”
When asked later if he had watched the debate, Biden paused briefly and said, “I don't think I did, no.”
He also repeatedly said that his performance was “nobody's fault (but) mine.”
The interview came on the same day that Biden defiantly rejected a growing chorus of Democrats urging the 81-year-old incumbent to drop out of the race.
“I'm totally ruling it out,” Biden told reporters on a Wisconsin tarmac after a campaign stop. The president said he had spoken to “at least 20” members of Congress “who are advising him to stay in the race.”
The decision could set the campaign on a path of growing tension with some of its key allies and donors who, citing concerns about Biden's health and abilities, have called for a new candidate to lead the Democratic Party in the November election.
Biden spoke with Stephanopoulos after the rally, and ABC will air the interview during a “special program” on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. The segment was introduced during ABC's “World News Tonight with David Muir.”
Earlier today in Madison, Wisconsin, Biden told a crowd of supporters: “I will run and I will win again.”
“They’re trying to get me out of the race,” Biden told the crowd. “Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race.”
“I will not allow one 90-minute debate to erase three and a half years of work,” he added.
The ABC interview was high-stakes for the president, who needs to reassure his supporters that he can campaign effectively. But it’s unclear whether even a single interview, even a successful one, can undo the damage done by the debate against the 78-year-old Trump.
While Biden sounded consistently louder and clearer in Friday's speech than in last week's debate, he occasionally stuttered or stuttered on some words and phrases.
Frustration grows among Democrats
The ABC interview could mark a turning point for Biden's campaign, which in the wake of the devastating debate has faced growing calls from major donors, political allies and supporters in the media to replace the top of the Democratic ticket.
On Capitol Hill, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a longtime Biden ally, launched a new effort to convene a meeting of Senate Democrats next week to discuss what path Biden might take moving forward, NBC News reported.
When the president was asked on the tarmac about Warner's efforts, he dismissed them. “Warner is the only one who's thinking about it,” he said. “Nobody else has asked me to do it.”
Disney heiress and longtime Democratic donor Abigail Disney told CNBC on Thursday that she will hold off on donations until Biden withdraws.
On Wednesday, a group of business leaders mobilized by the pro-Democracy Leadership Project now urged Biden to step down.
The editorial boards of several newspapers, including The New York Times, issued the same call.
Questions are now being asked about how an alternative candidate, such as Vice President Kamala Harris, could replace Biden as the new nominee.
In turn, the Trump campaign and the Republican Party began escalating attacks on Harris.
“Joe Biden is our nominee,” Harris told CBS News on Tuesday. “We beat Trump once, and we’re going to beat him again. Period.”
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre held the line as a group of reporters peppered her with questions about Biden's abilities during the trip to Madison.
“He said he had a bad debate,” Jean-Pierre admitted. “But 90 minutes should not overshadow his career, his three-and-a-half-year term as president.”
Biden is “as determined, strong and clear-thinking as ever,” she added.
But this solid front — bolstered by subsequent statements of support from Democratic governors and other allies — did little to assuage the concerns of Trump’s opponents.
Polls change
Biden, the oldest president ever and who will be 86 at the end of his second term, was already struggling before the debate to boost his flagging approval ratings.
National polls have consistently shown a close race, but some polls give Trump an edge in key swing states that carried Biden to victory in 2020. At the same time, broad swaths of voters have repeatedly expressed concerns about Biden’s age and fitness for office.
After the debate, polls from major media outlets, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, showed Trump leading Biden.
This is new news. Please check back for updates.
