Last night, Paula covered Joe Biden's interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News, a session meant to dispel mounting worries about the president's mental acuity. During the interview, Biden indicated that he has no intention of leaving the race, which puts many on the left in an incredibly tough position: continue to publicly back Biden or call on him to drop out, undermining his candidacy.
Have fun with that, Dems!
The problem Democrats really have is that this interview was hyped as Biden's moment to steady the ship and yet he clearly failed to do so. And you only have to look at the faces of the ABC News panel to see that the media couldn't possibly spin the interview as having done Biden any favors.
When George cut to the team…their faces. pic.twitter.com/xOB3fUTi3r
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 6, 2024
It's like watching people at a funeral.
Yikes.
It was likely obvious to most people that it wasn't going to be great for Joe Biden when Stephanopoulos opened the interview by noting that there were "no cuts, no edits" to the video. As Paula noted, "There was really no need. There was no way to pretty up the pig tonight." He asked Biden if he knew how poorly the debate was going. Biden admitted, "It was no one's fault but mine," an interesting change of strategy after more than a week of the campaign blaming staffers for how he looked.
Related: Bombshell Report Reveals ‘Conspiracy’ to Hide Biden’s Mental Decline
Biden then bizarrely mentioned his recent events and large crowds. Stephanopoulos suggested Biden shouldn't compare his rallies to Trump's. Biden repeated, "I just had a bad night," and claimed Trump distracted him during the debate.
So much for accepting full responsibility for his performance, right?
Stephanopoulos, to his credit, really pushed back on Biden's narrative. He cited a pattern of decline and asked if Biden was the same man as when he took office.
"I am [the same] in terms of success," Biden claimed
Biden claimed the same successes he had had throughout the campaign, like foreign policy and battling Big Pharma, adding he'd restored "decency" to the office. When asked about the cost of his tenure, Biden repeated, "A bad night." Stephanopoulos pressed on Biden's cognitive condition. Biden denied needing specific cognitive tests, listing recent conversations with world leaders but stumbling over details.
Biden insisted he's the best candidate to defeat Trump, despite his poor polling. In fairness to him, polls show that any candidate who might actually replace him doesn't exactly do much better against Trump.
Former White House Press Secretary and Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer called the interview "the worst of all worlds" for the Democrats.
"Biden committed no real flubs," he observed." He didn’t do anything to force himself out of the race. But he appears old, weak, tentative and he’s losing to Trump. So Biden will dig in and stay."
While the interview was pitted as Biden's make-or-break moment, the goalposts were, of course, moved.
"We’re going to have, I guess a good way to judge me, is you’re going to have now the NATO conference here in the United States next week," Biden said at the end of the interview. "Come listen. See what they say."
We will, Joe. We will.
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