Biden confident of victory in TV interview despite massive criticism
The interview with ABC News was Biden's first television appearance since his disastrous showing in the TV debate with Donald Trump a week ago. Given the growing panic among Democrats, the interview was given significant importance. However, the 22-minute conversation seemed to do little to calm things down. Instead, it raised more questions.
ABC moderator George Stephanopoulos confronted Biden repeatedly with demands from some Democrats for a conversation about drafting a new candidate. He asked Biden if he would step down if he was convinced he couldn't beat the likely Republican presidential candidate Trump in November.
"I don't think anyone is more qualified to be President or win this race than I am", Biden answered the question about whether his presence in the race could put the Democrats in danger of losing the White House. He dismissed calls to submit to a cognitive test. "I take a cognitive test every day", he said. That comes with the Presidency.
Since his appearance at the TV debate with his predecessor Trump on June 27, there has been a discussion among Democrats about whether they should replace the 81-year-old with another candidate for the presidential election on November 3. Biden spoke loudly and incoherently during the TV debate, repeatedly getting tangled in his sentences and not finishing them.
Looking back on his weak performance in the TV debate, Biden now referred to his poor health condition that night. "I was sick, I felt terrible", Biden said in the ABC interview. He had "a really bad cold".
Biden spoke more fluently in the TV interview on Friday than at the debate, but he still spoke with a muffled voice. He gave incomplete sentences on occasion.
From the Democratic ranks, there was criticism after the ABC interview that Biden seemed "out of touch." Trump's campaign team mocked him during the broadcast. "Biden sounds like he's in a coma," Trump's team wrote mockingly on online networks. The President refuses to acknowledge reality and is "in decline," they claimed.
Biden's campaign team dismissed such calls for withdrawal. Just a few hours before the ABC interview, they released a full schedule for Biden's campaign tour in the remaining weeks of July.
At a campaign event in Madison in the state of Wisconsin the day before, the President gave a fiery principled speech and unequivocally declared: "I'm staying in the race. I will beat Donald Trump." At the Independence Day celebrations in the White House on Thursday, Biden also confirmed that he had no intention of withdrawing.
In surveys following the TV debate, Biden fell increasingly behind Trump. At least four democratic Congress representatives, as well as renowned newspapers and commentators, have openly called for Biden to withdraw from the presidential candidacy. According to media reports, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, and the leader of the democratic minority in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, are planning crisis talks with representatives in the coming days.
- During the ABC News interview, the US President's Election campaign team had anticipated that George Stephanopoulos would ask Biden about calls from some Democrats to draft a new candidate, given his performance in the TV debate with Donald Trump.
- In response to Stephanopoulos' questions, Joe Biden's response to the criticism about his qualifications and health was assertive, stating, "I don't think anyone is more qualified to be President or win this race than I am," and dismissing the idea of a cognitive test.
- The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) interview triggered more criticism from the Democratic ranks, with Trump's campaign team mockingly commenting that Biden "sounds like he's in a coma" and claiming he's "in decline."
- Despite the criticism, Biden's Election campaign team remained resilient, planning a full campaign tour schedule for the remaining weeks of July and reaffirming his commitment to stay in the race, as he had done in a speech in Madison, Wisconsin, and at the White House's Independence Day celebrations.
