I watched President Biden’s interview with George Stephanopoulos via video delay just moments ago.
While certainly better than his debate performance, it did little to allay my sense that he has become a doddering old man.
We’ll see in the coming days how many Americans watched the interview or sound bytes from it and whether it moves the needle in the polling. But the initial reaction from media observers mirrors mine.
Fox News (“ABC News panel says Biden interview won’t ‘calm the nerves’ of ‘jittery Democrats’“):
“Look, Biden looked better and certainly more coherent than he looked during the debate, but there’s nothing in this interview that is calming nerves of jittery Democrats who fear that Joe Biden is on a trajectory to lose this race, to lose to Donald Trump,” ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl told Stephanopoulos after the interview.
“In fact, for some of those people, the interview is raising new concerns, particularly the fact that he is unwilling or unaware of the fact that he is in a dire situation here regarding the campaign, that he is losing, in the view of many Democrats and frankly in the polls you cited, that he is losing to Donald Trump,” he said.
Karl added it was “alarming” when Biden said he would be content with a hypothetical defeat against former President Trump as long as he as he “gave it [his] all,” telling Stephanopoulos that a Biden ally reacted to him with a “wow.”
“The bottom line here: there was nothing in this interview that will force Joe Biden out of the race… but there’s also nothing in this interview that will calm the nerves of Democrats who are saying it’s time for him to get out,” Karl added.
ABC News chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz said those Democrats she had texted insisted the interview “wasn’t as bad as they expected,” but added, “That’s a pretty low bar.”
The network’s congressional correspondent Rachel Scott told Stephanopoulos after hearing from Democratic lawmakers, they’re concerned that while the “dam hasn’t broken tonight,” “the bleeding has not stopped, either.”
“Another Democrat telling me, ‘Better, but not sure that is enough,’ that they need more than one interview, more than 22 minutes to prove that the president has the stamina to continue in this race and defeat Donald Trump,” Scott said before adding that the “movement” trying to remove Biden as the Democratic nomine “is growing.”
Yes, I know, Fox News. But this is an accurate description of the conversation, which I sampled myself. You can watch it yourself, if you haven’t already, in the video embedded above.
NYT (“Four Takeaways From Biden’s Post-Debate Interview“):
The president on Friday did not struggle to complete his thoughts the way he did at the debate. But at the same time he was not the smooth-talking senator of his youth, or even the same elder statesman whom the party entrusted four years ago to defeat former President Donald J. Trump.
[…]
He was in a defensive posture throughout, arguing that his past performance should be proof enough about his capacity in the future.
“It was a bad episode,” the president said. “No indication of any serious condition.”
He blamed exhaustion but also being so sick ahead of the debate that his doctors tested him for Covid-19. But what he would not agree to was any kind of neurological examination.
“Look, I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day, I have that test,” Mr. Biden said, suggesting that the job of the presidency was its own type of test. He declined repeatedly to sit for an independent exam.
[…]
Some of Mr. Biden’s answers were neither compelling nor cohesive.
He paused for multiple seconds early in the interview after Mr. Stephanopoulos asked what had gone wrong a week earlier.
[…]
The answer was meandering and circular, even if it was not as bad as his worst moments at the debate in Atlanta. But it was hardly a crisp and concise reassurance for members of his party squinting to imagine what a second debate with Mr. Trump might look like in September.
[…]
The reality that some of the president’s allies have come to accept is that nearly every Biden interview, public appearance or utterance for the foreseeable future is going to come under a harsh new spotlight.
[…]
Mr. Biden set an awfully high bar for what it would take for him to step aside.
“If the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that,” he said.
Mr. Biden repeatedly waved off polling that Mr. Stephanopoulos cited to show Mr. Biden’s weakness, including a 36 percent approval rating. “That’s not what our polls show,” Mr. Biden snapped. He said “all the pollsters” whom he speaks with tell him the race is a “tossup.”
It was not the words of a man ready to exit the stage.
As Mr. Biden said earlier in the day at a rally in Madison, Wis., “They’re trying to push me out of the race. Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race.”
When Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed him about the burbling discontent among Democratic elected officials, Mr. Biden shrugged it off. “I’ve seen it from the press,” he said.
Perhaps the most revealing answer came when Mr. Biden was asked about how he would feel if Mr. Trump were being sworn in as president in January.
“I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all, and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Mr. Biden said.
The Hill did them one better, giving us “5 takeaways from President Biden’s big interview with George Stephanopoulos.“
Biden’s meandering answers and overall demeanor in that clash magnified voters’ concerns about the mental acuity of the 81-year-old president. Some in his party have called on him to quit the race, and there are credible media reports that a more concerted push may come soon.
[…]
There were two dramatic possibilities for the interview. One was a seismic gaffe from Biden that would end his political career; the other, a performance so strong it would hush his detractors and stabilize his position.
Neither happened. There was nothing disastrous in Biden’s responses — and nothing so stellar as to quell the spreading discontent.
Biden did have some strong moments, prosecuting the case that Trump is a “congenital liar” more effectively than he did when standing mere feet from the former president last week.
He got off the defensive at other times too, as when he outlined some priorities for a second term, such as expanded health care and child care.
[…]
Biden is in such danger partly because the crisis keeps deepening.
On Friday, right before the interview was to air, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) became the fourth Democratic lawmaker to call for Biden to step aside.
[…]
Also Friday, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) released a statement urging the president to “carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) has begun trying to pull together a group of Democratic senators to ask Biden to withdraw.
[…]
ABC initially screened a short excerpt from the interview on “World News Tonight,” approximately 90 minutes before the full version aired in prime time.
The advance clip showed Biden pausing after Stephanopoulos asked him whether he had watched the debate afterward.
“I don’t think I did, no,” the president replied.
Axios (“‘He’s toast’: Biden’s ABC interview flops with Hill Democrats“):
What we’re hearing: “No one’s mind has been changed,” a House Democrat said, adding that a growing number of lawmakers agree “it’s time” for Biden to step aside and are “hoping to give him space to do this on his own.”
- Another House Democrat said their colleagues feel Biden’s interview was “not impressive” and that “he’s toast” in November.
- Said a third: “The interview hardly inspires confidence. It changes nothing.”
- A fourth House Democrat said they were “shocked” by Biden’s “refusal to recognize reality” in terms of polling and his “failure to make an argument about why he wants a second term.”
The other side: The Biden campaign painted the interview as energetic and eloquent, arguing the president laid out a clear case for a second term.
- They also pointed to statements of support and approval from lawmakers like Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Reps. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).
- Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said Biden did a “very good job” but that he wants to see an “extended live interview that focuses on where Biden plans to lead us over the next four years.”
- More broadly, Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) criticized colleagues who have pressed Biden to drop out as “undermining this incredible actual leader who has delivered real results for our country.”
Reality check: No matter how Biden performed, the interview was unlikely to significantly strengthen his standing on Capitol Hill, members told Axios ahead of time.
- “Nobody thinks that having a decent interview is the end of the problem,” one House Democrat told Axios before the segment aired.
The bottom line: “It makes me wonder what the Biden campaign is thinking, to build up so much expectation around this interview … and then serve up a 22-minute mixed bag,” one House Democrat said.
- “We needed more than that.”
Indeed.
To be clear: if my choice in November is between him and Donald Trump, I’ll vote for Biden without hesitation. A doddering old man with a team of competent handlers is preferable to a sociopath surrounded by sycophants. But a global superpower with 330 million citizens should be able to do better.
The President seems to be dug in, denying the reality that he’s losing the race along with his ability to perform. While the interview aired past his bed time, it was conducted early in the day while he was still fresh. This is likely as good as he gets.
It’s instructive that two of our great power allies, the UK and France, managed to call snap elections and conduct them in very short order. The former is already transitioning power to a new government and the second will decide their future this weekend. Alas, we are, to coin a phrase, a different democracy and have rules and structures in place that make rapid movements next to impossible. Despite there being enough time between now and November to run the UK election multiple times over, ballot deadlines are already past.
For reasons Steven Taylor has already laid out, the alternative to Biden as the Democratic nominee is likely Kamala Harris. I would much prefer the Joe Biden of 2008 or 2012—or even 2020—to her. But he is not walking through that door.
