More than a week after a disastrous debate, President Joe Biden sat down with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News to answer some of the tough questions his performance raised about his ability to run for office. Biden repeated many of the claims his team had already made since last Thursday: he was sick, he was exhausted, and yes, he had a bad night, but it wasn’t an “indication of any serious condition.”
He made clear he would not consider dropping out of the presidential race, with one concession—”if the Lord Almighty comes down” to tell him to.
Whether or not God intervenes, Democrats are beginning to step in. In the week following his debate, four House Democrats called on Biden to step out of the race, and they were joined this morning by Rep. Angie Craig from Minnesota, the first member from a swing state to make the call.
“Given what I saw and heard from the President during last week’s debate in Atlanta, coupled with the lack of forceful response from the President himself following that debate, I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump,” Craig said in a statement. Biden won Minnesota in 2020 by 7 points. FiveThirtyEight reports that he currently leads Trump in the state by about half a percentage point.
Craig’s stance might not come as a surprise. As early as 2022, she was questioning whether Biden should run again in 2024. “I would say we need new leaders in Washington up and down the ballot in the Democratic Party,” she answered when asked if she would support Biden’s run two years ago.
Representatives Mike Quigley of Illinois and Lloyd Doggett of Texas, both who called on Biden to drop out before the Friday interview, have reemphasized their positions since seeing the conversation. Quigley told CNN, “What we need right now—and what I think takes a spine—is to step aside and recognize the president of the United States doesn’t have the vigor necessary to overcome the deficit here and it’s going to affect us all.” Doggett, who was the first member of the House to make a statement encouraging Biden to drop out, told CNN, “Joe Biden is a good man. He’s an American patriot. Yet the need for him to step aside is more urgent tonight than when I first called for it on Tuesday.”
Stephanopoulos asked Biden what he might do if Chuck Shumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and Nancy Pelosi told Biden his staying in the race might risk losing the House and the Senate. He mostly rejected the premise of the question, stating that none of these people have said he should leave, and that he doesn’t expect any of them are going to.
“If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race,” Biden said, “The Lord Almighty’s not coming down.”