Washington
CNN
—
President Joe Biden’s struggle to prove he has the strength and awareness necessary for a second term is becoming an excruciating test for both himself and the nation.
“Watching a visibly aged Mr. Biden on primetime television answering straightforward health questions normally exchanged between patient and doctor seemed an affront to the dignity of the president. It’s sad to see someone respected and beloved by so many Americans find himself in such a predicament, and it would take a cold-hearted person not to sympathize with Mr. Biden as he confronts the painful human realities of aging in the most public way imaginable.
But Biden’s stance, his shocking performance in the presidential debates and his stubborn refusal to consider how it might affect his reelection campaign mean he is forcing the nation to have a conversation.
The political tides may be tilting against Biden, but the interview underscored his deep pride in the presidency he has achieved over nearly half a century, and his unwillingness to abandon his lifelong motto of getting up and fighting even when beaten down will exacerbate Democrats’ dilemma.
That the interview performance was far better than the president’s often disjointed performance at the CNN debate in Atlanta doesn’t mean much: There were no new mishaps that would immediately remove him from the race. But it also did little to calm the storm gripping his campaign and sparked renewed interest in his health amid growing signs that his Democratic power base is beginning to crumble.
It is becoming clear that the president, his party and the nation are sliding inexorably into a political crisis with the very real possibility of the presumptive nominee being eliminated just weeks before the party’s national convention and four months before the most important election in history.
The threat to Biden’s prospects is growing fast. Two more House Democrats called on the president on Friday to cede the nomination to a younger candidate. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia has been working to get Senate Democrats on the same page about Biden’s future to the point where he thinks it’s time for Biden to halt his campaign, a source familiar with his efforts told CNN. And House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is facing growing pressure from his own caucus over Biden’s position and has scheduled a virtual meeting with members of his party’s caucus committee, Democrats said.
Biden’s campaign had scheduled the interview with ABC News in an effort to prove that the president’s stumbling performance at last week’s debate was an aberration and to allay growing doubts about his status as the party’s 2024 nominee.
He spoke more calmly and fluently than he did in the CNN debate. He made much stronger claims about his successes in office and made his case against Trump more effectively than he did in the debate. And he dug deeper, even as a handful of Democrats called on him to give up reelection and panic grew among many others who have yet to reveal their true identities.
Biden also dismissed concerns about his health, insisting he was no weaker than before: “Can I run 100 meters in 10 minutes flat? No, but I’m still in great shape,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s anybody more qualified to be president or more qualified to win this election than me,” Biden said in an interview in the battleground state of Wisconsin.
“If the Almighty God came down and said, ‘Joe, step aside,’ I would step aside,” Biden said, but added, “The Almighty God is not going to come down.”
But Biden’s admission that he felt “terrible” in the days leading up to his showdown with Republican front-runner Donald Trump has raised new questions about his health, coming at a time of growing anxiety about whether, at 81, he is healthy enough to withstand the demands of the presidency and the strain of a re-election bid.
Biden’s apparent lack of confidence that he’d watched the debate tape (“I don’t think I have”) and his lack of clarity in some sentences only added to those doubts. He also added another reason for his poor debate performance to allies’ claims that he was stuffed with facts by staffers and had a jet-lagged cold: The president said he was put off by Trump’s refusal to continue talking even when his microphone was muted.
Asked if he was the same person he was when he took office three years ago, Biden dodged the question by listing his accomplishments. “In terms of successes, yes,” he said. “I’m the guy who put together the Middle East peace plan that may come to fruition. I’m the guy who expanded NATO. I’m the guy who grew the economy. Every single thing that’s been done is an idea that I came up with or that I’ve implemented. I’ve moved on.”
The president declared the debate a “bad night” and said he took responsibility for it. But more than a week after the debate, as Democrats grow increasingly anxious about the prospects for November’s election and the impact on democracy if Trump wins a second term, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: All it takes is a bad night on a high-profile stage, in front of millions of viewers, to cause irreparable damage to the campaign of a president who turns 82 two weeks after Election Day. A majority of Americans worry he is unfit to serve and want the country to keep him in office until January 2029.
Biden and his allies have warned that the painful 90 minutes onstage in Atlanta should not overshadow his accomplishments during his presidency, and they say the threat posed by Trump, his authoritarian instincts and his vow to dedicate a second term to “retribution” far outweigh any concerns about Biden’s competence.
But the question on millions of Americans’ minds has nothing to do with an examination of Biden’s performance in his first term, but rather whether he can make it through the next four tough years in the White House.
The interview also raised questions about whether the president was fully aware of the negative impact the debate was having on Democrats’ confidence in whether he could beat Trump, as he sparred with ABC News reporter George Stephanopoulos over polls that show him falling further behind the former president nationally and in battleground states.
The interview is one in a series of events that the campaign has held up as opportunities to prove Biden’s fitness, including a rally on Friday and a news conference planned for next week at a NATO summit in Washington.
But Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., told CNN the president needs to do a lengthy live interview, unlike the taped one for ABC. Though the campaign promised “aggressive” events in July on Friday, other lawmakers are calling for the president to get out and prove his stamina.
But the pledge did not spur calls for Biden to resign.
“President Biden has done a great deal for our country, but it’s time to follow in the footsteps of one of our Founding Fathers, George Washington, and step aside so a new leader can rise up and take on Donald Trump,” Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts said in an interview with Boston radio station WBUR before the ABC interview aired. Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois said Biden has “little chance of success” if he stays in the race.
“Mr. President, I want to say your legacy is set. We owe you the utmost. The only thing you can do now to cement that forever and prevent total disaster is to step down and let somebody else take over,” Quigley told MSNBC. He later added on CNN: “What we need now, and what I think needs courage, is to step down and recognize that the president of the United States does not have the drive that is necessary to overcome the deficit and that it affects all of us.”
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey stopped short of going that far, but in a statement to CNN, she said Biden “must carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Trump. Whatever President Biden decides, I will do everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump.”
The anguish over Biden’s fate is especially painful for Democrats, many of whom believe the president has done a good job of restoring the post-COVID economy, spurring hiring, tapping into allies abroad and passing big infrastructure and climate change measures. But increasingly, fear of a Trump administration seems to be overshadowing overwhelming satisfaction with Biden’s performance.
To ease those concerns, Biden has tried to redirect questions about his age at rallies and refocus the focus on what he’s actually done while in office.
“All I see is talk about I’m too old,” he said. “Let me just say this: I’m not too old to create over 15 million new jobs. Am I too old to help 21 million Americans get insurance under Obamacare. Am I too old to forgive the student loans of nearly 5 million Americans? Am I too old to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court of the United States?”
Biden’s every word will be subject to intense scrutiny after the debate, risking to intensify critical views of his age and mental capacity after impressing in viewers’ minds the image of a struggling president weakened by age.
So Trump’s fatalistic comments in the ABC interview about how he’ll feel in January if he wins are likely to stir concerns among many Democrats about his thinking, his perception of the situation and what will happen in November.
“As long as I’ve done my best and I’ve done the best job I can, I’ll be satisfied. That’s what this election is about,” Biden said.
