U.S. President Joe Biden leaves the podium after delivering a speech at the 115th National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) National Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, July 16, 2024.
Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden said in an interview aired Wednesday that he may reconsider his decision to continue running against Donald Trump if a health condition arises.
BET host Ed Gordon asked Biden in the interview on Tuesday: “What are your hopes personally… of saying, ‘If I saw this, would I reevaluate?'”
“If I had some health condition, if someone, if a doctor came to me and said, ‘You have this problem, you have that problem,'” Biden responded, according to a video clip shared ahead of Wednesday’s broadcast.
Biden, 81, faced growing pressure from members of his own party to drop out of the race after a disastrous debate with Trump, 78, in late June.
Earlier Wednesday, California Rep. Adam Schiff urged Biden to step down.
The Democratic incumbent’s gruff, stiff appearance and occasionally vague, unfocused answers during debates have stoked fears among his allies about whether he can effectively campaign against Trump or serve another four years. Year.
The Biden campaign said during the debate that the president had a cold, and he later said he was exhausted after a grueling international trip. He reportedly assured nervous Democrats after the debate that he had been checked by a doctor and was told he was in good health.
White House physician Kevin O’Connor described Biden in February as “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old man.”
Biden has repeatedly acknowledged his poor performance. “I made a serious mistake in the whole debate,” he said in the BET interview.
But the president and his campaign have pushed back against calls for him to step down, insisting he is the Democrat best equipped to defeat the Republican former president.
“When I originally ran, you may remember, Ed, I said I was going to be a transition candidate and I thought I could get out of this and pass that on to other people,” Biden told Gordon.
“But I didn’t expect things to become so, so, so divisive,” he said. “Frankly, I think the only thing that comes with age is a little bit of wisdom. And I think I’ve proven that I know how to do good things for the country, despite the fact that (unintelligible) we can’t do that.” It can’t be done.
“But there’s more to do, and I’m not willing to give up on that,” Biden said.
The full interview will air Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET, which is noon on the third day of the Republican National Convention.
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