After spending the first week of July trying to calm nervous donors and elected Democrats, President Joe Biden sat down with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos for an interview that aired on Friday, July 5, where he said he would only drop out of the race if “the Lord Almighty” tells him to do it.
The president spoke with key allies last Wednesday, including meeting with a group of Democrat governors and holding a conference call with campaign staff, vowing to continue his reelecting campaign.
The president told campaign staffers that nobody would push him out of the race.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who was also on the call, said the campaign would “follow our president’s lead” and would “not back down.”
One source told the New York Times that if Biden repeated his poor performance from the CNN debate during his campaign events or the interview with Stephanopoulos, the campaign would be “in a different place.”
While the 22-minute interview with Stephanopoulos had no significant gaffes or shortcomings, the president’s responses did little to calm the nerves of Democrats.
Biden insisted that the polls showing him losing to Trump were wrong and argued that he was the only one who could defeat Donald Trump in November.
The president also dismissed concerns that his poor performance in the CNN debate was any indication that he suffered from a serious medical condition and again refused to undergo a cognitive test, insisting that he takes a cognitive test every day.
The president repeated his claim that the poor performance was just a “bad night,” arguing that he was “exhausted.”
Biden also claimed that he was distracted by Trump, who he falsely claimed was shouting at him while he was answering questions. However, it appeared that Biden may have confused the June 27 debate with the first presidential debate of the 2020 election.
When asked how he would feel if he stayed in the race and lost to Donald Trump, Biden said that as long as he “gave it my all” that was what it was about.
The latest New York Times/Siena College poll conducted after the debate showed Donald Trump six points ahead of Biden 49 percent to 43 percent.