WASHINGTON — President Biden insisted Friday he can still beat former President Donald Trump in November’s presidential election despite a series of new gaffes, as Democratic lawmakers called for him to resign.
In an attempt to project confidence, the 81-year-old president boarded Air Force One from Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington for a day trip to Wisconsin, where he is due to give his first television interview since last week’s debate debacle.
When a reporter asked if he could still beat Trump, 78, Biden responded by shouting, “Yes, I can!”
But Biden has privately told allies he may be forced to concede the nomination if he cannot stabilize his political position, and the interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton administration intelligence officer who now appears on “Good Morning America,” is widely seen as a make-or-break moment.
The pre-recorded interview will air in its entirety on Friday at 8 p.m.
Democrats are still reeling from Biden’s disastrous performance against Trump in last Thursday’s CNN debate, in which he appeared confused and made incomprehensible statements such as “I won Medicare.”
Biden’s inner circle of advisers has shrunk in the week since the debate, despite growing sentiment among Democrats that he may have to step aside, according to sources.
So far, only a handful of Democrats have publicly said they believe Biden will lose to Trump if he doesn’t step down, but many more are considering doing so.
Vice President Kamala Harris would be the most likely successor if Biden were to abandon his reelection campaign, but many Democrats worry that Harris could do even worse against Trump and would instead support a candidate led by someone else, such as California Governor Gavin Newsom or Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
At a meeting with the nation’s Democratic governors on Wednesday, Biden joked that he was in good health but that “it’s just my brain” that was the problem, adding that he planned to improve his performance by getting more sleep and not appearing in public after 8 p.m. Nonetheless, the governors were stunned when Biden made nearly identical statements claiming he was “fighting to win.”
But his false statements continue. In a radio interview recorded Wednesday and aired Thursday, Biden twisted his words to declare that he was “the first Black woman to serve under a Black president.”
Biden again stumbled during a Fourth of July evening address on Thursday, telling military personnel and their families that “I’ve been in and out of combat” despite never having served in the military, then appeared to regain his composure as he called Trump his “colleague” before improvising and adding, “Wherever Biden’s motorcade goes, there’s no traffic.”
The Democratic National Committee now plans to nominate Biden or a successor through an electronic ballot before Ohio’s polls close on August 7, likely eliminating the possibility of a challenge at the Democratic National Convention, which begins in Chicago on August 19.
