Trump doesn’t expect Biden to drop out of 2024 race, says president looked ‘extremely pale’ at debate

Former President Donald Trump said he doesn’t expect President Biden to drop out of the 2024 contest due to his “ego” during a prime-time appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity” Monday night.

“I think he might very well stay in, and if he doesn’t – nobody wants to give up that way – he’s going to feel badly about himself for a long time,” Trump said.

“He’s got an ego and doesn’t want to quit. I think Jill would like to see him stay, she’s having a good time. I’m hearing Hunter is calling the shots,” he mused.

“It’s hard to give it up that way the way they’re trying to force him out,” the former president said, alluding to the growing chorus of Democratic allies calling for him to step aside.

In the wide-ranging 15-minute interview, Trump’s first since his debate with President Biden last month, host Sean Hannity probed the 2024 GOP standard bearer about his rival’s near-universally panned performance in the June 27 debate.

“Within minutes I could tell this was not going to be a good night for Joe Biden,” Trump said, highlighting his “extremely pale” appearance on the Atlanta stage.

His reviews on Biden’s performance were not much kinder.

“When he started to speak I thought his voice was weak, I didn’t know exactly what was happening. It was strange.”

What to know about the fallout from President Biden’s debate performance:

• President Biden’s poor performance in the first 2024 presidential debate has left even some Democrats unsure of his fitness for office and future as the party’s candidate.
• Former President Barack Obama admitted that Biden had a “bad” debate, while his rival former President Donald Trump suggested that he was in a “trance” and “choked.”
• Biden told a crowd at a North Carolina rally the day after the debate that he doesn’t “debate as well as I used to” — but insisted that he can still “do this job.”
• The New York Times editorial board called on the president to serve the country by dropping out of the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a similar editorial a day later.
• Biden gathered with his family at Camp David to assess the campaign’s future, with his son Hunter reportedly pushing for him to stay in the race. Family members questioned if the president’s top advisers should be fired after the disastrous debate.
• In a pre-taped interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden claimed that his “bad episode” at the debate was a result of a cold and not any cognitive issues.
• Biden has rejected calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats, insisting to Stephanopoulos that he is the most qualified to win the election. At a Wisconsin rally, he declared that he is “running and going to win again.”

As for the content of his opponent’s messaging, Trump said, “They weren’t even answers, they were just words put together that made no meaning or sense.”

Biden’s cognitive state has come under increasing scrutiny after his near-universally panned performance in the June 27 debate, followed by a series of subsequent appearances where he rambled incoherently or seemed dazed.

As for his reaction to the media’s about-face on denying Biden’s declining faculties, the ex-commander-in-chief said “it’s getting difficult to cover for him.”

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