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

President Biden dodged questions about whether he would be willing to undergo an independent medical evaluation that included neurological and cognitive cognitive tests and then release the results to the American people.

Speaking during a sit-down ABC interview he said: “Look, I have a cognitive test every single day.

“Every day I have that test – everything we do, you know, not only in my campaign, but I’m running the world, and that’s not how it sounds like hyperbole, but we are the central nation of the world.”

Pressed again by ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos on taking such tests and making the results public, he said: “Watch me between, there’s a lot of time left in this campaign – over 125 days.”

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.

Joe Biden is not technically the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. Not yet.

So is it possible for Joe Biden to drop out? And who would replace him at the top of the Democratic ballot?

John Bowden takes a look:

Democratic insiders have told The Independent that they believe there is “no question” Vice President Kamala Harris would receive the baton if Biden chose not to run in November.

But a Biden campaign spokesperson said that the president is “absolutely not dropping out.”

If he did, Democrats would have to pick a new presidential nominee. And the logistics surrounding that are not simple.