President Joe Biden admitted he “made a mistake” during last week’s presidential debate and acknowledged that his performance in some of his first interviews since the meltdown had been difficult.
“I had a bad night,” Biden told Earl Ingram on WAUK, a radio station based in Waukesha, Wisconsin. “I didn’t have a good debate. That’s 90 minutes on stage. Look what I’ve done in 3 1/2 years.”
The president sat for pre-recorded interviews with two radio stations — WAUK and WURD, the only African-American-owned and -operated talk radio station in Pennsylvania — as he tried to calm the nerves of Democrats who have been despondent about his ability to serve.
In recent days, he has made last-minute plans to convene more than two dozen Democratic governors, call senior congressional leaders, interview ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and travel to the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Even so, a growing chorus of Democrats is urging him to make a quick decision on the future of his campaign — with at least two calling for him to step aside.
If Biden doesn’t emerge at the top of the ticket, some members of his party are rallying behind Vice President Kamala Harris as the second in line for the Democratic nomination. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, a top ally of the president who helped save his campaign four years ago, said Wednesday he would support a “mini-primary” ahead of the Democratic convention later this summer if Biden steps aside, though his staff later sought to clarify that the lawmaker was responding to a hypothetical question.
Biden told governors during his meeting Wednesday night that he had undergone a medical checkup and was doing well, POLITICO reported. Still, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and Janet Mills of Maine expressed concern about whether he could win their blue-leaning states, according to two people with knowledge of the discussion.
In his interviews with WAUK and WURD, both of which aired Thursday morning, Biden appeared lucid as he discussed his record, Donald Trump and issues affecting black Americans — a voting bloc he has struggled to keep on side. Ingram said on his show that he was originally scheduled to speak to Biden for less than 10 minutes, but the conversation lasted more than twice that. On WURD, he interviewed host Andrea Lawful-Sanders for nearly 15 minutes.
When Lawful-Sanders asked Biden if Americans should be concerned after his performance at the debate, Biden gave a simple answer: “No.”
“I had a bad debate,” the president said, laughing. “But 90 minutes on the podium doesn’t erase what I’ve done for three and a half years.”
A Biden campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from POLITICO.
Biden has rearranged his holiday weekend schedule to campaign Friday in Madison, Wisconsin, and Sunday in Philadelphia, two key battlegrounds he narrowly defeated Trump in 2020.
His interview with Stephanopoulos will now air “in its entirety as a primetime special” on Friday at 8 p.m. EST, with a transcript of the unedited interview available the same day, ABC News announced. While he is in Wisconsin, Biden will sit down with Stephanopoulos earlier on Friday.
