US President Joe Biden attributed his poor performance during last week's debate, in part, to Donald Trump's constant shouting on stage.
The incumbent spoke with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in his first sit-down since the first presidential debate of the 2024 race, which notably set Biden back with voters. Early on in the interview, Stephanopoulos veered the conversation toward last week's debate, which Biden called a "bad night" for him.
"How quickly did you realize you were experiencing a bad night?" the ABC reporter asked. Biden said: “It knew I was having a bad night when i realized when he (Trump) had answered questions and they turned his mic off and he was still shouting i let it distract me" The former president is known to have a hard time waiting his turn to speak, however Stephanopoulos pointed out that Biden struggled to form sentences even before Trump's mic was muted.
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President Biden, seeming more cognitively stable than last Thursday, said he was confident he could reclaim the White House in November. Stephanopoulos kept the heat on Biden as he continually questioned his fitness for the position of commander in chief, asking the president if the debate was a bad episode of a worsening condition.
He read off a New York Times article that asserted the president has been showing clear patterns of cognitive decline that is prompting prominent Democrats to beg for his withdrawal from the race. Seeming slightly annoyed, Biden pointed to his accomplishments over the last four years—expanding NATO, fighting big pharmaceutical companies, create a plan for the Middle East—as he said he will not be dropping out of the race.
Stephanopoulos eventually asks Biden if he's ever taken a cognitive exam. "No one said I had to," he snapped back. The ABC reporter asked whether the incumbent would be willing to undergo said test and make the results public. After initially dodging the question to again boast about his accomplishments, Biden ultimately signaled that he wouldn't take such an exam.
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Biden told reporters he was "completely ruling out" withdrawing from the 2024 race as calls for his resignation grew. Saying he's "gotten more done than any president has," he claimed to have defeated Trump in the past.
When asked during the interview whether he would step aside if he became convinced he couldn't beat Donald Trump, Biden answered he would only do so "if the Lord Almighty comes down" and tells him so. Stephanopoulos retorted: “I agree that the Lord Almighty is not going to come down. But if you are told reliably from your allies, and your friends and supporters in the Democratic Party, in the House, in the Senate that they’re concerned you’re going to lose the House and the Senate if you stay in, what will you do?”
Biden declined to answer the question. “It’s not going to happen,” he said.