President Biden maintained that his disastrous debate performance last month against former President Trump was nothing more than a “bad episode” or a “bad night” rather than a sign of something more serious and suggested he alone was to blame for it, making the remarks on Friday during his first major television interview since the debate debacle.
Amid mounting speculation about whether Biden is fit to be president – both for the remainder of his term and for the four-year term he’s seeking – ABC News host George Stephanopoulos asked Biden if his performance was “a bad episode or the sign of a more serious condition?”
“It was a bad episode,” Biden said. “No indication of a serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing. It was a bad night.”
Biden added that “the whole way [he] prepared” was “nobody’s fault but mine.”
The president then pivoted to attacking Trump, accusing him of having “lied 28 times.” When asked if he watched the debate since it aired, the president said, “I don’t think I did, no.”
PRESIDENT BIDEN FACES THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL WEEKEND OF HIS POLITICAL CAREER
President Joe Biden sat for his high-stakes ABC interview after a rally in Madison, Wisconsin (Getty Images)
The clip is a preview of Biden’s primetime interview with Stephanopoulos, which is set to air in full on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.
The stakes for the sitdown are high; the 81-year-old Biden is facing mounting pressure to step aside as the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee.
His performance during last month’s CNN Presidential Debate has led to even staunch Biden allies questioning whether he’s in a worsening mental state. A growing chorus of elected Democrats are publicly airing fears that he will lose to Trump and could possibly drag Democrats down in critical House and Senate races across the country.
BIDEN RAMPS UP SPENDING IN BID TO STEADY HIS FALTERING CAMPAIGN
Concerns about Biden’s viability were raised in the mainstream media after the CNN Presidential Debate (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Biden, for his part, has declared several times that he will not bow out.
“Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race. I will beat Donald Trump,” Biden told a supportive crowd in Madison, Wisconsin just before he sat down for his pre-taped interview.
He also addressed the CNN face-off, telling voters: “I’m not letting one 90-minute debate wipe out three-and-a-half years of work.”
WHAT BIDEN SAID ABOUT HIS DEBATE PERFORMANCE
A growing number of Democrats are expressing public concern he could lose to former President Trump (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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Meanwhile, three House Democrats have now publicly called for Biden to make way for a new nominee: Reps. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.
There were also multiple letters circulating this week among House Democrats that would call on Biden to step aside, two sources familiar with those discussions told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
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