The president told George Stephanopoulos that he’d drop out only if “the Lord Almighty” directed him to do so.
No interview could reverse the damage that Joe Biden did to his campaign in the first presidential debate, but his conversation with George Stephanopoulos tonight showed that the president doesn’t even understand how profound the damage is.
The 20-minute interview, which aired this evening on ABC, featured a combative Biden, more like the president who gave a widely praised State of the Union address in March than the one who crumbled on a debate stage last week. Biden clearly believes that he can and will win the race against Donald Trump, but he seems stuck on June 26, unable to recognize the doubts that his party and voters have about him after the first presidential debate.
One of the interview’s most striking moments came when Stephanopoulos pressed Biden on whether he would submit to an independent neurological assessment. He refused. “Look, I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden said, pointing to the duties of the presidency. If that’s true, he failed the test on June 27, and no interview, no matter how strong, can erase it.
