President Biden dusted off his chief rival’s political playbook during a call into MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in which he crowed about his crowd sizes and dared disgruntled Democrats to challenge him while railing against the “elites.”
“I’m getting so frustrated by the elites … in the party,” he said during a feisty Monday interview on “Morning Joe.” “With any of these guys who don’t think I should run — run against me.”
“Challenge me at the convention.”
Technically, Biden is slated to get coronated during a virtual roll call over the coming weeks ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August to ensure ballot access. He already has the delegates needed for the nod.
At another point in the interview, Biden, 81, appeared to slip up and admit he had notes in front of him while rattling through Trump’s “lies” on the liberal cable news program.
“I’m reading from the list of lies,” he said. Paper shuffling could be heard at times during that interview.
Detractors have needled him for leaning heavily on scripts during public events and speeches. Part of the reason why the debate was a wake-up call for a segment of Democrats is because it was a rare extensive unscripted public outing for him.
Biden also groused about complaints that he used a teleprompter on the campaign trail, initially suggesting he didn’t use them, before backtracking.
“And now they’re talking about whether I use a prompter. Well, I did it all extemporaneously,” he said, “actually using prompters too, I don’t get that,” he added with a chuckle during a confusing remark.
During the phone call to what is reportedly his favorite political TV show, Biden admitted that he regrets his debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month.
“Look at my career, and I have not had many of those nights. It was a terrible night, and I really regret it happened,” Biden admitted.
He further downplayed the political blowback of his debate performance, which has triggered a reckoning over his age and fitness for office and instead hit back at Trump, 78.
“I’ve been out on the road so much all over the country, and while Trump is riding around in the golf cart,” Biden chided. “He hadn’t been anywhere in 10 days.”
“The idea that Donald Trump has gained in any substantial way as his argument to why he should be president is anywhere convincing as it was two weeks or three weeks ago — it’s just not there [sic].”
The president touted his campaign stumping across the country after the debate and felt that he had a sufficient finger on the pulse of where voters were at. He claimed that the effort was to ensure that his “instinct” that Democrats still want him was right and that there “wasn’t any slippage at all.”
“All the data — all the data, shows that the average Democrat out there who voted — 14 million of them voted for me — still want me to be the nominee,” he said, later bragging about the “large crowds and enthusiastic crowds” he drew.
Arguing that “I don’t care what the millionaires think,” Biden contended that “I’m confident” the average voter is still with him.
He further bashed the Democratic elites and shrugged off criticism from luminaries such as David Axelrod as well as James Carville and laughed off a question about whether he has taken robust examinations to screen for diseases such as Parkinsons’ disease.
“I have a neurological test every single day,” he quipped.
The Post recently scooped that Biden’s physician met with a Parkinsons’ disease specialist earlier in the year.
Biden reiterated his excuse that he was feeling under the weather during the debate, which kicked up a firestorm about his age and calls from a handful of congressional Democrats for him to step aside.
“Measure me [by] what I’ve done. And by the way, in terms of my neurological capacity, I had a physical, a neurological physical as well in February. It’s released.”
The February summary from Biden’s doctor said that “an extremely detailed neurologic exam was again reassuring in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder.”
Critics have called on Biden to undergo a cognitive assessment.
The 81-year-old president further underscored that he has no intentions of stepping aside as the presumptive Democratic standard bearer.
“The bottom line here is that we’re not going anywhere. I am not going anywhere. I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t absolutely believe that I am the best candidate,” he said defiantly.
Biden’s call into MSNBC came on the heels of a letter he sent to Congress insisting that he is not dropping out. That letter came as the Congress reconvened following its Fourth of July recess and congressional Democrats were poised to get peppered with questions about Biden.
A cacophony of Democrats had been rattled by Biden’s debate performance, when he stared blankly into the camera, mouth agape, bumbling through sentences at times, and appeared to lose his train of thought at others.
“I haven’t lost. I beat him last time. I’ll beat him this time,” Biden said of Trump. “Look at his performance with debate. He lied.”
“He’s just a liar, and he hasn’t done a damn thing since the debate,” he went on. “…This is a guy who is an extreme candidate. I can’t think of a candidate in my lifetime, that’s been more extreme. He makes George Wallace look like a patriot.”
Trump used to frequent “Morning Joe” during the 2016 presidential cycle and called in periodically, before later having a falling out with the anchors.
After the debate, co-host Joe Scarborough appeared to sour on Biden and implied that Democrats should rethink having him atop the ticket.
“This is a last chance for Democrats to decide whether this man we’ve known and loved for a very long time is up to the task of running for president of the United States,” Scarborough said the day after the June 27 debate.
Since then, Scarborough who reportedly gives advice to the president, has appeared to warm up to Biden again.
Meanwhile, polling has pegged some significant slippage in Biden’s support. After the debate, a CBS News/YouGov poll found that 72% of voters felt that Biden lacked the cognitive abilities needed to run the country.
In the RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling, Biden is trailing Trump in most battleground states and nationally. Biden is lagging behind Trump by 4.9 percentage points in a five-way race, per the latest RCP aggregate.
