President Joe Biden seems to be in denial with simply how severely his latest debate efficiency in opposition to Donald Trump has damage his 2024 marketing campaign.
In an interview with ABC Information’ George Stephanopoulos that aired Friday, Biden was confronted with questions concerning the fallout of his stumbling debate efficiency: polling that exhibits Trump with an growing lead, voters and Democratic colleagues calling for Biden to step apart, and, to prime all of it off, an already abysmal approval score of 36%.
To that, Biden responded: Not in my world.
On the difficulty of falling help proven in latest polls, Biden questioned the accuracy of the information and leaned on inside polling that he claimed nonetheless put the 2024 election at a “toss-up.”
“You assume polling knowledge is correct because it was once?” Biden mentioned.
The president additionally disagreed when Stephanopoulos identified his low approval score. “Mr. President, I’ve by no means seen a president of 36% approval get re-elected,” Stephanopoulos mentioned.
“Nicely, I do not imagine that is my approval score — that is not what our polls present,” Biden responded.
Based on FiveThirtyEight’s weighed common, Biden has reached his lowest approval of his presidency at simply 36.9%.
At one level, Biden exaggerated the extent to which he was behind Trump in The New York Occasions-Siena School ballot earlier than the talk.
“New York Occasions had me behind earlier than something having to do with this race, had me hind — behind 10 factors. Ten factors they’d me behind,” he mentioned.
Biden was really down solely roughly 3 to 4 share factors at a time, relying on whether or not it was amongst registered or possible voters. Based on their post-debate ballot, Trump now leads between six to eight factors, relying on the identical issue. It’s Trump’s largest lead recorded in a Occasions/Siena ballot since 2015.
On the rising calls from Democratic lawmakers for the president to step down, Biden mentioned he is met with many colleagues, and none of them have suggested him to droop his marketing campaign.
“They are not going to do this,” Biden instructed Stephanopoulos when requested if he would contemplate stepping out of the race if individuals near him requested him to take action. To this point, 4 Home Democrats have known as for Biden to drop out, and Sen. Mark Warner is reportedly making an attempt to arrange his colleagues to push for Biden to withdraw from the race.
Biden appeared to dismiss Warner’s rallying of senators, saying that the lawmaker tried to “get the nomination, too.” Warner was final anticipated to make a run for president in 2008.
Biden repeatedly mentioned within the interview that the one one who might get him to step down was the “Lord Almighty.“
All the warning indicators which have appeared because the June 27 debate had been merely propped up by the press, Biden mentioned.
A spokesperson for the Biden marketing campaign instructed Enterprise Insider that the president’s interview with Stephanopoulos was simply one in every of many moments that showcased that Biden is the appropriate candidate to go in opposition to Trump.
Biden did acknowledge that he did not carry out effectively throughout his debate in opposition to Trump.
However the president mentioned the night was merely a “unhealthy evening” for him and that he did not “belief his instincts” when debating in opposition to a “pathological liar.”
“Can I run the 100 in 10 flat? No,” Biden mentioned. “However I am nonetheless in fine condition.”
