President Joe Biden sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday for a critical interview amid reports of panic among Democrats following his debate performance last week.
During his 22-minute interview, Biden attempted to explain what went wrong at the debate and re-confirmed that he will not be stepping down as the Democratic Party’s nominee.
Here are three key moments from Friday’s interview:
Biden says he had a ‘bad night’
At the start of the interview, the President said he was too tired and sick from a bad cold as the reason for his poor debate performance.
“It was a bad episode,” Biden said. “No indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing and– and a bad night.”
Stephanopoulos pressed Biden, saying he was back in the U.S. for 12 days before the debate, spent six days in Camp David preparing with his team.
“I was feeling terrible,” Biden answered. “I asked if they did a COVID test because they’re trying to figure out what was wrong. They did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, you know, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold.”
“I don’t buy that”
Later in the interview, Stephanopoulos told Biden he was losing in the polls — both nationally and in the key battleground states — to Donald Trump. The President responded by saying he has seen polls showing him trailing in the past but he came out on top.
Biden rejected polls from both NBC News and The New York Times, claiming his internal numbers don’t show him losing as badly.
Asked by Stephanopoulos whether he was being honest with himself about his ability to beat Trump, Biden said, “Yes. Yes, yes, yes.”
Stephanopoulos pointed out Trump is beating Biden both in the popular vote and in the critical state votes but Biden refused to believe it.
“I don’t buy that,” Biden said.
Biden won’t take a cognitive test and release the results
With concerns about Biden’s fitness swirling, Stephanopoulos pressed Biden repeatedly about taking a cognitive and neurological exam and releasing the results to the American people.
Each time, the President danced around the question, saying his job is the test.
“I get a full neurological test every day,” Biden said — referring to his job.
“I have medical doctors traveling everywhere. Every president does, as you know. Medical doctors from the best of the world travel with me everywhere I go. I have an ongoing assessment of what I’m doing. They don’t hesitate to tell me if they think there’s something else is wrong,” he said.
When asked whether he’s had cognitive tests and an exam by a neurologist, Biden said no.
