Biden brushes off debate as ‘bad episode’

Joe Biden has downplayed his disastrous debate performance as a “bad episode” and revealed he hasn’t re-watched the footage, in a first look preview of his high stakes ABC News interview.

The president sat down with presenter ABC George Stephanopoulos in Wisconsin on Friday (US time) for what has been hyped as arguably the most consequential interview of his career, amid mounting calls for the 81-year-old to drop his re-election bid.

In a preview of the highly anticipated interview, set to air in full at 8pm ET (10am AEST) Mr Biden admitted his performance at last week’s presidential debate with Donald Trump was “nobody’s fault but mine”, explaining he had a “bad night”.

“Was this a bad episode or the sign of a more serious condition?” Stephanopoulos asked in the preview clip. “

“It was a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing, and I had a bad night,” said Mr Biden.

Mr Biden said he was sick during the debate, suffering from a bad cold.

“I was feeling terrible. As a matter of fact, the docs with me I asked if they did a Covid test, they were trying to figure out what’s wrong. They did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, you know, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold.”

When asked if he has watched the debate back, Mr Biden replied: “I don’t think I did, no”.

Excerpts of the TV interview were originally expected to air over the weekend, but with anticipating soaring, ABC switched it’s plan and will instead broadcast the interview in full on Friday night in the US.

Biden declares he’s all in

Ahead of the interview, a defiant Mr Biden told supporters on Friday he would stay in the White House race and beat Donald Trump.

Appearing at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin, Mr Biden delivered an energetic speech, unequivocally declaring, “I’m staying in the race. I’ll beat Donald Trump.”

As supporters cheered, he went on the attack against his rival.

“Let’s focus on what really matters,” Mr Biden said, reading from teleprompters.

“We’re running against the biggest liar and the biggest threat … to our democracy in American history – that’s not hyperbole.”

The Biden campaign has pushed back hard on any suggestion the president may withdraw, and just hours before the ABC interview, released an aggressive campaign travel schedule for the rest of July.

Latest gaffe

The high stakes interview comes after Mr Biden stumbled over his words in a radio interview with Philadelphia’s WURD on Thursday, appearing to describe himself as a black woman.

“By the way, I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman … to serve with a black president. Proud to be involved of the first black woman on the Supreme Court. There’s so much that we can do because, look … we’re the United States of America,” he said.

Mr Biden appeared to be talking about his appointment of Kamala Harris as the United States’ first black female vice president.

Confusingly, he himself was previously vice president, which is likely what he was referring to when he said “to serve with a black president”.

The reference to the Supreme Court is Ketanji Brown-Jackson, the first black female justice, who was appointed by Biden in 2022.

Calls to step aside

Post-debate polls have shown Mr Biden’s pool deficit widening, and at least three of his party members in Congress have now called on him to step aside, as have several major newspapers and a raft of Democratic-supporting political commentators.

Wealthy Disney heiress and Democratic supporter Abigail Disney, told CNBC she plans to withhold donations to the party until Biden drops out, saying bluntly that “if Biden does not step down the Democrats will lose” in November.

“This is realism, not disrespect,” she said.

– With AFP