WASHINGTON — President Biden insisted Friday that he can still beat former President Donald Trump in November — despite a series of fresh gaffes as fellow Democrats call for him to step aside.
The 81-year-old president sought to project confidence — giving the press a thumbs up as he boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington for a day trip to Wisconsin, where he will sit for his first TV interview since his disastrous debate performance last week.
When a reporter asked whether he could still beat Trump, 78, Biden shouted back, “Yes!”
Biden has privately told allies, however, that he may have to cede the nomination if he can’t stabilize his political footing — with his interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton White House operative turned “Good Morning America,” widely seen as a make-or-break moment.
The pre-recorded interview is scheduled to air in full at 8 p.m. Friday.
Democrats are still reeling from Biden’s catastrophic display against Trump at last Thursday’s CNN debate, where the president appeared confused and made nonsensical remarks such as that he “beat Medicare.”
Sources say Biden’s inner circle of advisers has shrunk in the week since the debate, even as consensus mounts among elected Democrats that he may have to step aside.
Thus far, only a handful of congressional Democrats have said on the record that they believe Biden will lose to Trump if he doesn’t step aside, but many more are considering doing so.
Vice President Kamala Harris is the most likely replacement nominee if Biden abandons his re-election campaign, but many elected Democrats fear that she could fare even worse against Trump and prefer a ticket led by someone else, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom of California or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
At a Wednesday meeting with the country’s Democratic governors, Biden said that his health was fine, but his problem was “just my brain” in an apparent joke and added that he planned to improve his performance by getting more sleep and having no public events after 8 p.m. — stunning governors who nonetheless issued near-identical public statements insisting that Biden remained “in it to win it.”
But his misstatements have continued. In a radio interview taped Wednesday and broadcast Thursday, Biden mangled his words to declare he was the “first black woman to serve with a black president.”
At an Independence Day appearance Thursday evening, Biden again stumbled, telling military members and their families, “I’ve been in and out of battle” — despite never serving in the armed forces — and seeming to catch himself as he nearly referred to Trump as a “colleague,” before extemporaneously adding “there’s no congestion” wherever his motorcade travels.
The Democratic National Committee currently plans to nominate Biden or a potential replacement via electronic voting ahead of Ohio’s Aug. 7 ballot access deadline — likely foreclosing a possible floor challenge at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which begins Aug. 19.
