Biden sits for crucial post-debate interview with George Stephanopoulos: Live updates

Donald Trump wants to pause his classified documents case in Florida for several months so he can argue that his charges should be thrown out under the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential “immunity.”

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With pressure mounting for Joe Biden to stand aside after his troubling debate performance against Donald Trump, vice president Kamala Harris has emerged as a surprisingly strong potential challenger to the ex-president.

ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Biden how he would feel if, after refusing calls for him to step down, Donald Trump was elected in November.

“I feel as long as I gave it my all and I did as good a job I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Biden replied.

In a “more personal” question, George Stephanopoulos asked Joe Biden: “Are you sure you’re being honest with yourself when you say you have the mental and physical capacity to serve another four years?”

“Yes, I am, because George, the last thing I want to do is not be able to meet that,” Biden replied.

“Some of the senior economists, the senior foreign policy specialists say, if I stop now, I go down in history as a pretty successful president. No one thought I could get there, then we got there.”

Stephanopoulos pressed him: “But are you being honest with yourself as well about your ability to defeat Donald Trump right now?”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Biden said.

The full sit-down interview with president Joe Biden and ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos will air shortly.

It is the first interview the president has done since his poor performance in the presidential debate against Donald Trump, during which he spoke in a raspy voice, became confused and appeared to lose his train of thought mid-sentence.

In a previous clip, Biden claimed full responsibilty for his performance, but reiterated he had been “exhausted” and “feeling terrible”.

President Biden on Friday said he won’t consider standing down from his campaign for a second term in the White House despite growing pressure from him to do so from Democratic members of Congress and donors to his party.

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President Biden said he did not watch his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump back afterwards.

Asked by ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos during his first interview since the debate last week, if he knew how badly it had been going in real time, he replied: “Look, the whole way I prepared, it was nobody’s fault but mine. I prepared what I usually would do, sitting down…”

Pivoting towards his rival, Trump, he continued: “The fact of the matter is that what I looked at is that he also lied 28 times I couldn’t. I mean, the way the debate ran [it was] my fault, nobody else’s fault.

Stephanopoulos pressed: “But it seemed like you were having trouble from the first question. In, even before [Trump] spoke.”

“Well, I just had a bad night,” Biden replied.

The former first lady would certainly be a popular choice, according to the polls, but has repeatedly said she wants no further involvement in the cut-throat world of politics.

Martha McHardy looks at the case for Michelle Obama stepping up to the plate.

President Joe Biden has claimed full responsibility for his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump last week.

In a new sit-down interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, due to air in full at 8pm, the president reiterated that he had been ill prior to the debate, but said his performance was “nobody’s fault but mine.”

In a clip, broadcast earlier on the network’s “World News Tonight”, the president addressed concerns raised by senior Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, about whether the debate was a sign of a more serious condition.

“It was a bad episode, no indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing. It was a bad night,” he said.

Biden had indeed had a busy schedule prior to the debate, including visits to the US West Coast and France for the D-Day anniversary, but had returned to Washington with more than a week in hand.

Asked why 11 or 12 days was not enough recovery time, he replied: “Because I was sick. I was feeling terrible. Matter of fact, the doctors with me, I asked that they did a Covid test. We were trying to figure out what was 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.”

The full ABC interviews with Biden is set to air at 8pm ET.