Defiant Biden says no intention to exit presidential race in TV interview
Al Jazeera
US president says his recent debacle in a televised debate with Donald Trump was due to ‘exhaustion’ and a ‘bad cold’.
United States President Joe Biden used a much-anticipated interview with ABC News to reiterate that he is the candidate to beat Donald Trump in November’s presidential election and again called his recent disastrous debate against Trump “a bad episode”.
Biden, 81, told ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos in a taped interview that “I have a cognitive test every single day”, referring to the tasks he faces daily as president.
“Every day, I’ve had tests. Everything I do,” he said. “I just had a bad night. I don’t know why.”
Stephanopoulos asked whether the debate debacle “was a bad episode or a sign of a more serious condition” and whether Biden was being realistic in his belief that he could beat Trump, 78, given the gap opening in opinion polls between the two candidates and growing concern among Democrats that Biden should step aside.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that one in three Democrats want Biden to quit the race.
