Biden casts debate as 'bad episode,' says, not sign of serious problem

By Jordan Fabian

President Joe Biden downplayed his debate performance as the result of an off-night not an indication of a more serious medical condition in an interview with ABC News as he worked to quell mounting calls to drop out of the race. 

“It was a bad episode,” Biden, 81, said Friday in the interview with anchor George Stephanopoulos, chalking up his performance to a bad cold and saying his doctor tested him for Covid and also a viral infection. “No indication of any serious condition — I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing, I had a bad night.”

Still, the president said he was solely responsible for the performance, and realised that he had gotten bogged down in the details on stage against Republican Donald Trump.

“I was feeling terrible,” Biden said. “I just had a really bad cold.”

Asked if he had watched his debate performance, which alarmed Democratic allies, Biden said he didn’t think he had.

The interview came during a trip to Wisconsin in which Biden flatly declared he was not considering dropping out of the race. He said those looking to pressure him were disrespecting the will of Democratic primary voters, and that he still believed he represented the best chance for Democrats of defeating Trump.

That opinion is not necessarily shared by some influential Democratic lawmakers and donors, and it’s unclear if Biden’s interview will do enough to stem the bleeding from his debate performance. 

Biden acknowledged earlier Friday that Senator Mark Warner, an prominent Democrat from Virginia, was looking to rally other lawmakers to pressure him to drop out. The president said he had heard from others that he should remain in the race.

The issue will be put to the test over the coming week. Biden heads to Pennsylvania for campaign events on Sunday, before hosting NATO leaders starting Tuesday at a summit in Washington. The president’s ramped-up schedule is a response to panicked Democrats who have demanded he do more to prove to voters he is capable of serving another four years in the White House. 

In his revamped stump speech, he defiantly reminded his critics that Democratic voters chose to nominate him for another term, acknowledged his age and took repeated shots at Trump’s gaffes. 

“Some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for. Well, guess what? They’re trying to push me out of the race. Let me say it as clearly as I can, I’m staying in the race,” Biden said. “You think I’m too old to beat Donald Trump?” 

“No,” the crowd shouted.

Still, the interview is poised to be the most pivotal of those appearances. Democratic officials have said that Biden must speak in more unscripted, off-the-cuff settings to persuade Americans he is mentally and physically fit. A nationally televised question-and-answer session marked his highest-stakes opportunity to do just that before an audience of millions.

Trump grew his lead over Biden among likely voters to 6 percentage points, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released after the debate. Some 74 per cent of respondents said Biden is too old for the job, up 5 points since the debate. Polls conducted by CNN and the Wall Street Journal had similar findings. 

Biden met Wednesday behind closed doors with more than 20 Democratic governors in a bid to stem the crisis engulfing his presidency, telling them he is “in it to win it.” He received public votes of confidence from several of them, including California’s Gavin Newsom and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer. 

But privately, the governors had tough questions for the president and he acknowledged that he needs to get more sleep going forward, according to a person familiar with the discussion. 

One of the participants, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, issued a statement Friday that stopped short of calling on Biden to drop out but appeared to push him to at least consider the possibility.

“The best way forward right now is a decision for the President to make. Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump,” she said. 

More than half a dozen House Democrats have also gone public with their desires to see him step aside or with concerns that he could lose to Trump in November.