Biden downplays poor debate performance in high-stakes ABC interview, brushing off concerns over his age and political future

By Betsy Klein and Michael Williams, CNN

Washington (CNN) — President Joe Biden on Friday downplayed his poor performance in last week’s debate, offering additional excuses for the showing and adding that it was his fault alone.

The president said in an interview on ABC that he was “sick” and “feeling terrible” before the debate. Asked whether it was a bad episode or a sign of a more serious condition, Biden dismissed those concerns.

“It was a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing, and I had a bad night,” he said.

In the interview, Biden also gave more details about how he was feeling at the time of the debate, saying he was fatigued from illness and had even been tested for Covid-19. The White House did not immediately respond to CNN’s inquiry as to whether the president took the test before or after the debate.

He said, “Because I was sick – I was feeling terrible. As a matter of fact, the docs with me I asked if they did a Covid test, they were trying to figure out what’s 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.”

The conversation was Biden’s first televised interview since his debate performance, a high-stakes moment for his political future as a mounting list of Democrats – lawmakers, donors and voters – express concerns about the viability of his candidacy.

Four Democratic members of Congress have called on Biden to step down. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued a statement Friday asking Biden to “carefully evaluate” whether he is the party’s best choice to defeat Donald Trump. And Virginia Sen. Mark Warner is looking to get Senate Democrats on the same page about the future of Biden’s reelection bid, sources told CNN, putting further pressure on the White House. Warner, who is taking on a leadership role in the effort, is reaching a place where he thinks it is time for Biden to suspend his reelection campaign, a source familiar with his efforts told CNN.

The comment about his illness marked the latest turn in the White House’s description of the president’s physical condition during the debate. White House officials told reporters during the debate that the president had a cold, and then on Wednesday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed the idea that Biden had been seen by his doctor, repeatedly saying that the president has had no medical exams since his February physical.

“It’s a cold, guys. It’s a cold.” she said at the time. “I know that it affects everybody differently. We’ve all had colds, and so no, he was not checked out by the doctor.”

A day later, the White House confirmed that the president had, in fact, seen a doctor about his illness, and on Friday Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One that Biden had a “verbal check-in” with his doctor after the debate.

She cast Biden’s check-in as “a conversation” with his doctor, Kevin O’Connor, after reporters noted that the president told a group of Democratic governors that he saw a doctor.

“So he did have a short verbal check-in in the recent days about his cold. It wasn’t a medical exam or physical, just want to be super, super clear about that. It was a conversation and his doctor didn’t think an examination was necessary,” Jean-Pierre said Friday after saying Wednesday that Biden “did not get checked out by the doctor.”

The president said he has not watched a replay of his performance. When he was asked whether he knew how badly it was going, he said it was “nobody’s fault but mine.”

As he answered the question, Biden offered a confusing tangent on New York Times polling.

“I prepared what I usually would do sitting down as I did come back as foreign leaders or National Security Council – for explicit detail. And I realized, about partway through that – you know, all that I get quoted is The New York Times had me down 10 points before the debate, nine now, or whatever the hell it is. The fact of the matter is that – what I looked at is he also lied 28 times,” he said.

Pressed on his performance, he said, “Well I was just having a bad night.”

A fired-up Biden says he’s staying in the race

Biden came face-to-face with voter concerns just before the ABC interview, as he was taking the stage at a campaign rally in Wisconsin. A rally attendee unfurled a sign reading, “Pass the torch, Joe.” The sign was visible for a few moments before someone else tried to cover part of it with a Biden-Harris sign.

Biden’s speech during that rally was animated and energetic – though he seemed to realize that each of his words would be parsed and carefully scrutinized in this politically crucial period. He vowed to “beat Trump again in 2020” before quickly realizing his mistake and correcting himself: “By the way, we’re gonna do it again in 2024.” Slamming Trump’s economic policy, Biden said his opponent “wants another 5 billion – trillion, trillion, not billion – $5 trillion tax cut.”

He directly addressed criticisms about his age: “I wasn’t too old to create over 50 million new jobs, to make sure 21 million Americans are insured under the Affordable Care Act, to beat Big Pharma … Was I too old to relieve student debt for nearly 5 million Americans? Too old to put the first Black woman on the Supreme Court of the United States of America? To sign the Respect for Marriage Act?”

Biden said unnamed forces are “trying to push him out of the race.”

“Well, let me say this as quick as I can,” he added. “I’m staying in the race.”

That point was punctuated by the song that played as Biden’s speech concluded: Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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