ABC News has brought forward the release of a key interview with President Biden as pressure mounts for the 81-year-old president to prove he can stay in the 2020 presidential race after last week’s disastrous debate performance.
Biden is scheduled to speak with host George Stephanopoulos early Friday, and the Disney-owned network initially said it planned to release a taped version of the interview in pieces before airing the full show on Sunday.
Well, here’s the entire pre-recorded interview: It will be broadcast as a primetime special at 8 p.m. A preview of the interview will be shown on “World News Tonight with David Muir,” airing at 6:30 p.m.
ABC News also said it would release the full, unedited transcript of the interview on Friday.
Biden, who will be 86 when his second term ends in January 2029, performed so poorly in the debates that some Democrats are wondering whether he is fit for the presidency or has a future as the party’s nominee.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Biden acknowledged to friends that he may be forced to withdraw if he fails to get the campaign back on track in the coming days.
Though the ABC interview was recorded, it was the first time voters had seen Biden speak at length since the debate, where he gave a number of rambling, incoherent responses and appeared to completely lose his train of thought during one of the first questions.
Biden’s interviewer, Stephanopoulos, is a veteran ABC News host who began his career as communications director for Bill Clinton’s campaign and later served in the Clinton administration.
Despite calls for Biden to step down, most members of his party continue to publicly support the president, including a group of Democratic governors who met with Biden at the White House on Wednesday.
New York Gov. Kathy Hockle, one of a handful of Biden’s gubernatorial allies who spoke outside the West Wing of the White House, said everyone in attendance had pledged to at least privately support Biden following his disastrous performance in Thursday’s debate.
“We are gathered tonight to hear President Biden tell us in his own words what his plan is. I am here to tell you today that President Joe Biden is here to win, and we have all pledged our support for him because those skates don’t get any higher,” Haukl said.
“We talked about how we transitioned under monarchy and tyranny that our founding fathers fought against, and how we’re in danger of slipping back into that same situation right now. We stand with the president as we fight that force, that force, that force that is Donald Trump.”
