President Joe Biden, facing a tough battle between winning the campaign and the presidency, could only free-ride on Friday on a wave of controversy that threatens to overwhelm his candidacy.
Biden didn’t stumble or falter during his make-or-break ABC News interview, as he did during the June 27 presidential debate. But he also didn’t offer any forceful moves to ease the fears of his supporters and undecided voters or appease his critics. Instead, he relied heavily on the existing campaign narrative of how things had gone wrong for him.
“There are no indications that I’m seriously ill,” Biden said in a 22-minute interview with George Stephanopoulos, attributing his condition to fatigue from international travel 12 days before the debate and a “bad cold.” “I was exhausted. I didn’t follow my instincts in terms of my preparation. And I had a bad night.”
Biden also was unclear when answering questions about his experiences during the debate, starting with how he prepared, then quickly moving on to a New York Times poll about the campaign, before shifting to his frustration with former President Donald Trump lying “28 times” onstage, before veering off into the way the debate was conducted and emphasizing that it was no one else’s fault.
Biden needed a game changer. But not this time. Biden needed to appear in control of his message. Now was no time to mope around.
‘It’s not going to happen’: Biden doesn’t make as much of an impression as expected
Biden’s political skills are still good enough to dodge the question: Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed Biden about whether he would be willing to take an independently administered cognitive test and make the results public.
Biden twice fired back, saying the president’s job is a “cognitive test every day.”
That doesn’t seem like the compelling defense Biden thought it would be: Telling voters that every day is a test at a time when they’re wondering whether you can stand the test after a major failure is likely to cause anxiety as much as it provides comfort.
Biden needs to revise his campaign.Time is running out for Biden to rebuild his campaign, and what happens next will determine everything.
It takes a lot of self-confidence and competence to run for president and win. But what if your confidence continues to surge after your competence has dried up? Stephanopoulos set out to study that. Here’s what he found:
“I don’t think there is anybody more qualified to be president or to win this election than me,” Biden said.
How confident? Biden was asked whether he would reconsider continuing the campaign if aides told him Democrats could lose control of the House and the Senate.
“I’m not going to answer that question,” Biden said. “It’s not going to happen.”
The Biden team needs to be more proactive.
Social media has been abuzz this week with fervent Biden supporters blaming Biden’s problems on the press’s overactive imagination. It sounds familiar: an echo of the rage Trump fans spew when faced with criticism they don’t want to hear.
Whining like a Trump supporter won’t change the state of the Democratic Party or how we got to this point. Biden is the only one who can pull us back from the political brink.
He certainly seemed in high spirits when he spoke to a cheering crowd at a middle school in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday afternoon, but he spoke for less than 20 minutes via teleprompter, insisting that no one “can throw me out of the election.”
“We’re not going to let three and a half years of work be wasted on a 90-minute debate,” Biden said at an afternoon rally, with his campaign announcing an “aggressive schedule of visits” to battleground states for the rest of July.
A speech of less than 20 minutes and a 22-minute interview during a risky week doesn’t seem aggressive.
Trump steps up criticism of Biden
Trump and his campaign initially avoided covering the news of Biden’s precarious position, citing a famous tactical phrase attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte: “Never get in the way of your enemy when he is destroying himself.”
Trump is still as bad as ever.The debates proved that neither Biden nor Trump were good candidates, but one of them was far worse.
But Trump being Trump, he couldn’t help but interrupt: According to a video obtained and published by The Daily Beast on Wednesday, he was seen lounging in a golf cart and inaccurately boasting about running Biden off the campaign trail.
He also complained on the social media site that Stephanopoulos was “the meanest, cruelest interviewer out there.”
By Friday, Trump was sending out a fundraising email declaring that “Biden could walk away tomorrow,” while the Trump campaign released a memo declaring that Biden’s “reset mission” had already failed.
Biden faces tough road to November
Biden’s margin of error here is extremely small: A New York Times/Siena College poll this week showed Trump leading Biden 49% to 43%, with the former president’s approval rating up 3 percentage points before and after the debate.
The poll also found that 74% of voters believe Biden is too old to be president.
At best, Friday’s rally and the ABC News interview may weaken calls from Democratic Party officials for Trump to resign and be replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris. But they may not.
This is the current state of the Biden campaign, always on the brink of fatal downfall at any misstep. If he survives politically next week, he will likely be under intense scrutiny for another week. Imagine that situation continuing for the full four months between now and Election Day, if Biden continues to campaign.
Biden is trying to portray himself as the guy who isn’t going anywhere, and that may well become a theme of his campaign.
Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X (formerly Twitter): @ByChrisBrennan
