It’s not fair, Mr. President, but it’s reality His interview with George Stephanopoulos did nothing to reassure people worried about a Biden defeat.By Dana Milbank
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/05/biden-stephanopolous-abc-interview-condition/
“It was a bad episode,” President Biden told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos Friday of his debate debacle. “No indication of any serious condition.”
Glad to hear it! But what about us?
Biden’s prime-time interview with Stephanopoulos will do nothing to reassure people worried about a Biden defeat. Stephanopoulos hectored him with nonstop and repetitive questions about his mental acuity for the full 22-minute session, which undoubtedly made Biden defensive. But the president seemed to be in denial about the magnitude of the problem facing him, unwilling even to acknowledge the obvious truth that he has lost a step over the last 3½ years.
Stephanopoulos pointed out that Biden is behind in the polls.
“I don’t buy that.”
Stephanopoulos, a veteran of the Clinton White House, told Biden he’d never seen a president with a 36 percent approval rating get reelected.
“I don’t believe that’s my approval.”
Is he more frail now?
“No.”
Does Biden dispute that there have been more mental lapses lately?
“Can I run the 100 in 10 flat? No, but I’m still in good shape,” Biden replied.
Biden’s determination not to give an inch was belied by his delivery: some of the same mouth-agape looks while listening to the question, a couple of meandering answers where he seemed to lose his train of thought. Incredibly, he said he hadn’t re-watched the debate that threatens to sink his candidacy. “I don’t think I did, no,” he said after a pause. He also said he had been distracted during the debate because of Trump’s behavior: “Even when they turned his mic off, he was still shouting.” The debate was broadcast in split screen, which did not show this.
But one other thing came through clearly in the uncomfortable interview. Biden has a strong — and justified — sense of unfairness about what is happening to him.
Asked if he can serve effectively for four more years, he uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. “George, I’m the guy that put NATO together. No one thought I could expand it. I’m the guy that shut Putin down. No one thought could happen,” he said. “I’m the guy that put together a South Pacific initiative with AUKUS. I’m the guy that got 50 nations — not only in Europe, outside of Europe as well — to help Ukraine. I’m the guy that got the Japanese to expand their budget.”
There were more such recitations of achievement. “I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be president or win this race than me,” he said, and “I’m the most qualified person to beat him.” He argued that, even with what he has done so far, “I’d go down in history as a pretty successful president.”
Biden’s frustration is understandable. He has amassed an impressive record of achievement. The presidential race should be about that, and about Trump’s lies, and the unique threat he poses to American democracy. Half a dozen times, Biden reminded Stephanopoulos that Trump is a “congenital liar” and a “pathological liar” and the like. And yet, here we are talking instead about Biden’s mental acuity.
Biden is hearing private and, increasingly, public calls from elected Democrats for him to quit the race. Though only four House Democrats have made the call publicly, many others share the sentiment. The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Liz Goodwin reported Friday afternoon that Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is trying to gather a group of Democratic senators to ask Biden to step down.
Biden aides blame the news media for carping on his gaffes since the debate. Democrats’ tendency to panic is also blamed. But the problem is real. The country is talking about Biden’s mental capacity instead of the singular menace of Trump returning to power. And if this keeps up, that is exactly what will happen. It’s not at all clear that Biden can change that storyline without doing what a man standing behind Biden onstage at his Wisconsin rally Friday afternoon recommended with the poster he held up: “Pass the torch, Joe.”
Biden, in his speech in Wisconsin, said he would do no such thing. “There’s been a lot of speculation. What’s Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race?” he said. “Well, here’s my answer: I am running and going to win again.”
Biden struck the same note of defiance in the ABC interview, saying he would only step aside if “the Lord almighty comes down and tells me that.”
His determination is admirable. And it is terribly unfair that the entire media narrative is now about his fitness for office rather than Trump’s fitness for office. But that media narrative, and the poor polling fueling it, are a new reality that now must be disproven, not denied or wished away.
“If you stay in, and Trump is elected, and everything you’re warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in January?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“I will feel, as long as I gave it my all, and I did the — good a job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Biden replied.
No, Mr. President. This is not about trying hard. In this serious condition we find ourselves in, the only cure is Trump’s defeat.
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