Six lessons from Biden’s high-stakes interview
In a bid to thwart the calls to leave in the election, Biden sat for a television interview on ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Friday night. Did it succeed?
Jul 06, 2024 07:00 AM
President Biden talks to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday. Handout / Getty Images conceal caption
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Handout/Getty Images
Democrats are in full-on anxiety over Biden’s chances of winning and the potential to take on Donald Trump since Biden’s dismal performance in the debate last week.
To ease this fear, Biden sat for an interview on television for the network in the ABC studio of George Stephanopoulos on Friday evening.
Did it succeed? It will be clearer in the the coming days Here are six things you can learn from the interview
1. Biden performed better than the debate, however Biden’s age is evidently showing.
Biden may have soothed a few tensions among his friends and political allies through this interview. However, he failed to exhibit the clarity and coherence that Democrats would have liked to be able to see. His thoughts were at times, a bit scattered and not always clear.
“I just had a bad night,” Biden admitted about the debate. “I don’t know why.”
He stated that he had been traveling for a few weeks and was suffering from a cold. He even had a COVID test.
Are Democratic politicians and most importantly convincing voters believe the idea that Biden is in good shape for another four years as president? Biden says he’s ready to the task, but his age is clearly revealing more than over the last year or so and precisely at the inappropriate moment. When the debate began the bar for expectation was extremely low. The only thing Biden was required to do was to show a bit of enthusiasm and energy. He didn’t do it. Now the standard is being raised. Any public event, talk, and debate (if there’s even one) will be amplified.
2. Biden demonstrated his stubbornness whether for good or bad.
Biden has once again stated that he’s not going to get out of the race. He even went on to say that basically nobody else could perform the job as effectively as he does and be an even better candidate than Trump.
Biden has played down the questions regarding his political standing and doubts about his leadership abilities or beat Trump. “I’ve seen it from the press.” “I don’t think the vast majority are there.” “I don’t believe that’s my approval rating.”
He was attempting to rationalize and deflect the flaws in his character and weaknesses, but the only way to understand the reason Biden hasn’t changed his mind is to comprehend his political stance as well as the essence of his character as an individual. Biden has had to face a myriad of challenges both politically and personally and those challenges have shaped his character. Biden can get used to having people saying he shouldn’t or shouldn’t and believes that those who say he shouldn’t have proved wrong.
Of course, the obstacles differ from the ones he currently has to face, since Father Time is undefeated.
Historical scholar Douglas Brinkley once said about the former president George W. Bush, “Stubbornness is a positive quality of presidential leadership–if you’re right about what you’re stubborn about.”
The same could be said regarding Biden as well as any other president in fact.
3. It’s only one of the “Lord Almighty” could force Biden to withdraw from the raceor at least his closest allies within the Democratic direction.
“If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race,” Biden stated. “The Lord Almighty’s not coming down.”
A second chance to demand Biden to leave is not likely however, Biden did appear to have left the door open to leave if his top congressional ally demanded it, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Jim Clyburn and Senate leader Chuck Schumer.
In order to be precise, nobody has ever urged Biden to resign However, Pelosi changed her mind and stated that it’s a valid concern to inquire whether Biden’s speech could be considered something of an “episode” or a “condition.”
“If you are told reliably from your allies, from your friends and supporters in the Democratic Party in the House and Senate, that they’re concerned you’re going to lose the House and the Senate if you stay in, what will you do?” Stephanopoulos asked Biden.
“I’m not going to answer that question,” Biden declared. “It’s not going to happen.”
It seems that Biden’s potential in this race isn’t his only concern.
4. There’s the question of whether Biden believes that Vice President Harris is able to perform the task as well.
“I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be president or win this race than me,” Biden claimed.
He then asked incredulously to know who else has that “reach” he has with allies and whether any other would be able to handle foreign policy as effectively as the man he is, although he’s certainly less effective than he was a couple of years back.
Maybe even his vice-president? Stephanopoulos did not follow up on the question, but it’s interesting. Anyone seeking office would think that there is no one who can do it better than them and yet, just exactly how much Biden has been to Harris recently and even raising her arms in the air during the Fourth of July event as it were if she’d just won a boxing matchand with the nagging questions regarding his age, one has to wonder whether there is a underlying assumption in his response that he lacks the conviction in Harris to perform the job, or even win?
5. This is a crucial time for the polls.
Now we are in week two following the debate. It generally takes several weeks for the public’s opinion to settle. Recent polls have found Biden affected by the debate – however the degree of which it is a matter of debate.
Therefore, this is a crucial period to decide whether Biden will be able to weather the hurricane or not. There are Democrats who are firmly on the side of Biden absolutely. However, many, if certainly not all, are chewing their lips and are waiting to see what the polls reveal.
If he stays in the same place he was before this debate could aid in gaining his support. If he falls further in the direction of Trump There will be a lot more Democrats asking him to step down.
6. The entire episode demonstrates the stark contrast in both the Democratic and Republican parties.
The fact that Democrats have asked as many questions in the past as Biden’s future shows the huge distinction between the two major parties.
One political party that is the GOP seems to not take into account that 2 dozen women accuse their candidate of sexual assault. They don’t think about it if he was the director of an untrue foundation, or an untrue “university,” don’t care that he made a payment to an infamous porn star, don’t bother whether he has repeatedly lied and doesn’t worry if his name was slammed twice or convicted of nearly three dozen felonies.
It is the Democratic Party, on the contrary, is worried with… the age of Biden, but not his character or the priorities of the country.
This has annoyed many, including John Fetterman, the brusque Pennsylvania senator.
“Democrats need to get a spine or grow a set–one or the other,” the senator wrote on the X. “Joe Biden is our guy.”