If The “Lord Almighty” Tells Biden To Step Down, He Will

In a 22-minute interview on Friday night, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos sat down with President Joe Biden, giving him the opportunity to answer some of voters’ most pressing questions: What happened at the debate and, at the age of 81, is Biden cognitively sound enough to lead this country?

Their conversation, which was filmed in Madison, Wisconsin, comes just over a week after Biden and former president Donald Trump faced off in Atlanta at the first presidential debate of the election season. In the immediate aftermath of the event—which included a hoarse and meandering Biden, a slew of lies from Trump, and a lack of fact-checking from the CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash—Democrats across the country have been agonizing on television, in opinion pages, and in closed-door meetings about whether or not Biden should be on the ticket come November.

Stephanopoulos didn’t waste any time before asking about Biden’s performance in Atlanta. After a brief thanks shared between the two men, a reunion of their 2020 town hall conversation, he began, “Let’s start with the debate. You and your team said, have said you had a bad night.”

“Sure did,” Biden said with a smile, noting that he doesn’t think he’s watched it back fully.

Biden said his bad night was because “I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing.” Throughout the interview, Biden repeatedly said that the debate was “Nobody’s fault but mine,” “nobody’s fault, mine,” “my fault, no one else’s fault, no one else’s fault.”

“Have you convinced yourself that only you can defeat him?” Stephanopoulos asked, after Biden detailed the Trump campaign’s ambitions for the future—many of which are outlined in the GOP’s playbook Project 2025.

“I convinced myself of two things. I’m the most qualified person to beat him, and I know how to get things done,” Biden responded.

“If you can be convinced that you cannot defeat Donald Trump, will you stand down?” Stephanopoulos pressed.

Biden laughed, smiled wide, and said: “If the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that,” later adding, “The Lord Almighty’s not comin’ down. I mean, these hypotheticals, George.”

“It’s not that hypothetical anymore,” Stephanopoulos responded.

On Saturday morning, Minnesota Representative Angie Craig became the fifth House Democrat (and the first battleground House Democrat) to call for Biden to withdraw. Craig joins Representatives Mike Quigley from Illinois, Lloyd Doggett from Texas, Raúl Grijalva from Arizona, and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts.

“I have great respect for President Biden’s decades of service to our nation and his steadfast commitment to making our country a better place,” Craig’s statement reads. “However, given what I saw and heard from the President during last week’s debate in Atlanta, coupled with the lack of a forceful response from the President himself following that debate, I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump.”

“If we truly believe that Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans must be stopped,” she continued, “there is only a small window left to make sure we have a candidate best equipped to make the case and win. This future of our country is bigger than any one of us. It’s up to the President from here.”

Virginia Senator Mark Warner, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, has also approached Senate Democrats to plan a meeting on Biden’s future as the party’s presidential nominee.

“Well, Mark is a good man,” Biden said when Stephanopoulos brought up the senator’s plan. “Mark and I have a different perspective. I respect him.”

When repeatedly asked if Biden would be willing to undergo an independent medical evaluation, that includes neurological and cognitive tests, and release the results to the American people, Biden dodged the question, saying, “I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I have that test. Everything I do.” “I’m running the world,” he continued, “sounds like hyperbole, but we are the essential nation of the world.”

The former president claimed that his team of doctors haven’t required the testing, noting, “They said I’m good.”

At times, Biden appeared to use the interview as a debate re-do, as another kind of stage. He made an effort to answer some of the questions he floundered during the debate—on the economy, his fitness to lead compared to Trump, and foreign policy. Just before this interview, Biden said he was on a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, noting, “I shouldn’t get into detail.”

“I think, as some of senior economist and senior foreign policy specialists say, if I stop now, I’d go down in history as a pretty successful President,” Biden said.

Trump and his team, who were reportedly offered an interview by ABC and declined, have indicated that they think Biden will, and ought to, stay in the race. “They’re stuck with Biden,” a senior Trump campaign source told Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman. “We need to make sure Biden stays on the ballot and there’s no bait and switch,” a veteran of Trump’s 2020 campaign said.

“I wish he was a great president because I wouldn’t be here right now. I’d be at one of my many places enjoying myself,” Trump said during the debate. “I don’t mind being here, but the only reason I’m here is he’s so bad as a president that I’m going to make America great again.”

Trump, who was convicted by a Manhattan jury of 34 felonies for covering up hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who was ordered to pay $83.3 million for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after being found liable for sexually assaulting her in 1996, and who was the first president to be impeached twice, is currently leading Biden by six percentage points among likely voters in a new national survey.

When Stephanopoulos asked if Biden was being honest with himself “about your ability to defeat Donald Trump right now?” Biden responded with four yeses. Stephanopoulos later pushed, “Wouldn’t a clear-eyed political calculus tell you that it’s gonna be much tougher to win in 2024?”

“Not when you’re running against a pathological liar,” Biden responded.

Biden used his time in Wisconsin to meet with voters. “There’s been a lot of speculation. What’s Joe gonna do? Is he gonna stay in the race? Is he going to drop out?” Biden said during a campaign rally at a Madison middle school on Friday. “Well here’s my answer: I am running and gonna win again,” he said.

During the event, someone in the crowd unfurled a sign reading, “Pass the torch, Joe.” Moments later, another attendee attempted to cover part of it with their own Biden-Harris sign.