Biden nixes idea of outside evaluation

MADISON, Wis. — President Joe Biden, fighting to save his endangered re-election effort, used a highly anticipated TV interview Friday to repeatedly reject an independent medical evaluation that would show voters he is up for serving another term in office.

He forcefully vowed to stay in the race and blamed his disastrous debate performance last week on a “bad episode” and said there were “no indications of any serious condition.”

“Look, I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden, 81, told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, referring to the tasks he faces daily in a rigorous job. “Every day, I’ve had tests. Everything I do.”

The 22-minute interview did nothing to reduce concerns about his age and fitness for another four years and his ability to defeat Donald Trump in November. At one point during the interview, Stephanopoulos asked Biden, “Did you ever watch the debate afterwards?” After a brief pause, Biden could not answer the question definitively, responding, “I don’t think I did, no.”

Polls show Biden losing and falling further behind Trump as a result of last week’s debate and his approval plunging to 36 percent. Biden disputed recent poll numbers during the interview.

Biden is left in a standoff against a not-insignificant faction of his party with four months to go until Election Day and with just weeks until the Democratic National Convention.

During the interview, Biden insisted he was not more frail than he was in 2020. He said he undergoes “ongoing assessment” by his personal doctors and they “don’t hesitate to tell me” if something is wrong.

“Can I run the 100 in 10 flat? No. But I’m still in good shape,” Biden said.

As for the debate, “I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing,” Biden said.

Biden suggested that Trump’s disruptions — while standing just a few feet from him — had flustered him: “I realized that, even when I was answering a question and they turned his mic off, he was still shouting and I let it distract me. I’m not blaming it on that. But I realized that I just wasn’t in control.”

Asked how he might turn the race around, Biden argued that one key would be large and energetic rallies like the one he held Friday in Wisconsin. When pressed that Trump routinely draws larger crowds, the president laid into his opponent.

“Trump is a pathological lair,” Biden said, accusing Trump of bungling the federal response to the COVID pandemic and failing to create jobs. “You ever see something that Trump did that benefited someone else and not him?”

Biden also insisted he was the “most qualified” to lead Democrats against Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Rally in Wisconsin

The interview, paired with a weekend campaign in battleground Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, was part of Biden’s effort to course correct from his debate performance last week.

But internal party frustrations continued to fester, with one influential Democratic senator working on a nascent push that would encourage the president to exit the race and Democrats quietly chatting about where they would go next if the president drops out — or what it would mean if he stays in.

“It’s President Biden’s decision whether or not he remains in the race. Voters select our nominee and they chose him,” said California Rep. Ro Khanna, a member of the Biden campaign’s national advisory board that works as a gathering of his top surrogates. “Now, he needs to prove to those voters that he is up to the job, and that will require more than just this one interview.”

Still, in Wisconsin, Biden was focused on proving his capacity to remain as president.

When asked whether he would halt his campaign, he told reporters he was “completely ruling that out” and said he is “positive” he could serve for another four years. At a rally in front of hundreds of supporters he acknowledged his subpar debate performance but insisted, “I am running, and I’m going to win again.”

“I beat Donald Trump,” Biden said. “I will beat him again.”

Biden, relying on a teleprompter for his remarks, attacked his presumptive Republican challenger almost immediately.

In his speech, Biden tried to flip the questions swirling about his age, asking the crowd whether he was “too old” to have passed gun legislation, created jobs and helped ease student loan debt — while suggesting he would do more in a second presidential term.

Doubts among Democrats

Biden is under pressure to bow out of the campaign after his rocky debate performance against Trump ignited concern that the Democrat is not up for the job for another four years.

While private angst among Democratic lawmakers, donors and strategists is running deep, most in the party have withheld public fire as they wait to see if the president can restore confidence with his weekend travel and his handling of the interview.

To that end, Sen. Mark Warner reached out to fellow senators throughout this week to discuss whether to ask Biden to exit the race, according to three people familiar with the effort who requested anonymity to talk about private conversations.

The Virginia Democrat’s moves are notable given his chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee and his reputation as a lawmaker supportive of Biden who has working relationships with colleagues in both parties. Warner’s effort was first reported by The Washington Post.

The strategy remains fluid. One of the people with knowledge of Warner’s effort said there are enough Senate Democrats concerned enough about Biden’s capacity to run for re-election to take some sort of action, although there was yet no consensus on what that plan would be. Some of the Democratic senators could meet as soon as Monday on how to move forward.

The top Democrats on House committees are planning to meet virtually Sunday to discuss the situation, according to a person familiar with the gathering granted anonymity to talk about it.

Meanwhile, at least four House Democrats have called for Biden to step down as the nominee, with Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois joining Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett and Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva in pushing for an alternative.

While not going that far, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in a carefully worded statement Friday that Biden now has a decision to make on “the best way forward.”

“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,” Healey said.

There were also a few signs of discontent at Biden’s campaign rally Friday, with one supporter onstage waving a sign that read “Pass the torch Joe” as the president came out. His motorcade was also greeted at the middle school by a few people urging him to move on.

But others were pleased. Rebecca Green, a 52-year-old environmental scientist from Madison, said she found Biden’s energy reassuring. “We were just waiting for him to come out strong and fighting again, the way we know he is,” she said.

Push in battleground states

Many Democratic lawmakers, who are hearing from constituents at home during the holiday week, are deeply frustrated yet split on whether Biden should stay or go. Privately, discussions among the House Democrats flared this week as word spread that some of them were drafting public letters suggesting the president should quit the race.

Yet pushback from other House Democrats was fierce.

“Any ‘leader’ signing a letter calling for President Biden to drop out needs to get their priorities straight and stop undermining this incredible actual leader who has delivered real results for our country,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., an influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Biden appears to have pulled his family closer while attempting to prove that he’s still the Democrats’ best option for competing in November’s election.

The ubiquitous presence of Hunter Biden in the West Wing since the debate has become an uncomfortable dynamic for many staffers, according to two Democrats close to the White House who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

For many staffers, the sight of Hunter Biden, weeks after his conviction on felony gun charges, taking a larger role in advising his father has been unsettling and a questionable choice, they said.

Biden’s re-election campaign is pushing ahead with aggressive plans despite the uncertainty. It plans to pair his in-person events with a fresh $50 million ad campaign this month meant to capitalize on high viewership moments such as the Summer Olympics, which start July 26 in Paris.

Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are scheduled to travel to every battleground state this month, with Biden in Pennsylvania on Sunday.

In a memo released Friday, the campaign also emphasized that Biden would participate in “frequent off-the-cuff moments” — once a hallmark of the gregarious, glad-handling politician’s career that have dwindled throughout his presidency.