It was, after all, an interview as personal as it was political, an intersection that focused more on the psyche and the inescapable reality of aging than on any point of politics or governance.
Respectfully but firmly, ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos on Friday pressed President Biden, again and again, on the key questions Americans had been asking themselves over the past eight days, after 51 million people watched a diminished Mr. Biden struggle to play in the discussion. stage.
“Are you weaker?”
“Were there more mistakes?”
“Have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an exam?”
And as Mr. Biden dismissed all those concerns one by one — brushing aside successive concerns about his health, his electability, his ability to serve four more years in office — Mr. Stephanopoulos addressed matters of pride. , dignified and worth swirling beneath the surface.
“Are you sure,” asked the anchor, “are you being honest with yourself?”
At 81, Mr. Biden is 18 years older than his interlocutor. The president arrived at the ABC interview on Friday tanned and tieless, the top two buttons of his shirt undone, making every effort to project youth and vitality. However, a viewer could not help but imagine the mop Mr. Stephanopoulos in the role of an adult son, guiding an elderly parent to a conclusion that can be difficult and deeply painful to accept.
It’s too early to say whether their 22-minute meeting Friday, which was taped in a Wisconsin high school library and aired on ABC in prime time, will rank among the most important interviews in presidential history. But it brought some of the highest stakes.
Democrats’ confidence in Mr. Biden’s ability to defeat his Republican rival, former President Donald J. Trump, plummeted after last week’s debate. The president’s soft voice, extended pauses and slurred speech — once seen by supporters as a troubling, if benign, feature of his public appearances — have had far darker implications.
Mr. Biden displayed many of those traits again on Friday, his voice becoming hoarse and hesitant at times. His answers occasionally meandered. He was much improved from the volatile president who stood up to Mr. Trump last Thursday, but neither was in the combative form of his 2020 debates.
When Mr. Stephanopoulos jumped right to the point — “You and your team said you had a bad night” — Mr. Biden bared his teeth with a smile.
“Sure,” he replied, equal parts humility and indifference. Hello. It happens.
But then the anchor started to sink. Nancy Pelosi, a former speaker of the House and an ally of the president, wondered if Mr. Biden had more serious health problems. Mr Biden blamed jet lag, but he had been back from Europe for more than a week. Did he realize, on stage, how badly he was doing?
The president, who has interacted with Mr. Stephanopoulos for decades, including when he served as anchor in the Clinton White House, tried to counter with some humor. “You’ve had some bad interviews at times,” he teased.
“I ate a lot,” replied Mr. Stephanopoulos. But, he pointed out, millions of people watched a debate that seemed to confirm fears about the president’s age.
When Mr. Biden accused the press of amplifying the concerns of Democratic leaders, the anchor said he had heard from dozens of supporters who “want you to go gracefully.” And when Mr. Biden tried to deflect by noting his administration’s accomplishments, Mr. Stephanopoulos responded: “What has all this work cost you over the last three and a half years physically, mentally, emotionally?”
As the interview drew to a close, Mr. Stephanopoulos returned to realpolitik. “If you stay and Trump is elected, and everything you’re warning comes to pass,” he asked, “how will you feel in January?”
“I’m going to feel as long as I gave it my all and did as good a job as I know I can do, that’s what it’s all about,” Mr. Biden said. (ABC’s original transcript rendered the quote as “I’ll feel like I gave it my all and did the best job I know I can do, so that’s it.”)
At one point, Mr. Stephanopoulos posed a series of scenarios to Mr. Biden, about how he would react if top Democrats called on him to retire. The president smiled and laughed.
“I mean, these hypotheticals, George,” he began.
the anchor interjected.
“It’s not so hypothetical anymore.”
The Times revised Mr. Biden’s quote in that article about how he would feel if he lost the election after White House officials and several news organizations contacted ABC on Friday about whether Mr. Biden had said “well ” or “good”. ABC’s standards team heard the audio again and made the change. Mr. Biden’s actual words at that point in the interview were difficult to understand and open to interpretation.
