(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden will sit down for his first one-on-one network TV interview following his widely criticized performance at last week’s debate against former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump.
The interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos will be pretaped and air in prime time on the television network at 8 p.m. ET. ABC has promised to release transcripts of the two’s conversation.
During the presidential debate hosted by CNN last week, Biden stumbled through his words and appeared to be confused at times. Although Trump made multiple false statements during the debate, concerns from both inside and outside of the Democratic Party over Biden’s age and mental acuity took center stage.
Ahead of Biden’s interview with Stephanopoulos, Trump took to Truth Social, calling the news anchor and former White House communications director “Liddle’ George, a tiny, angry man” and ABC “one of the worst and most vile Broadcasters in the business.”
Biden, meanwhile, spent the day before the debate celebrating the Fourth of July with Vice President Kamala Harris and members of his family. He made brief, unscripted remarks at a barbecue for active-duty military service members outside the White House. When a supporter yelled at him to “Keep up the fight,” Biden responded, “You got me, man. I’m not going anywhere.”
Debate affects Biden campaign
Three members of Congress have called for Biden to step down as the party’s nominee for president: Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.; Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas; and Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz. While these three are the only Democratic lawmakers to officially urge Biden to drop out of the race, there has reportedly been private angst among other lawmakers, donors and strategists. In addition, postdebate polls have shown Biden losing ground to Trump.
Biden himself has acknowledged that he had a “bad night.”
“The fact of the matter is that I screwed up,” Biden told Milwaukee radio host Earl Ingram. “I made a mistake.”
Still, the Biden campaign and White House have pushed back against claims the president isn’t running again.
They recently responded to a New York Times report that stated Biden plans to stop scheduling events after 8 p.m. so that he gets more sleep. According to the New York Times, Biden said at a recent gathering of Democratic governors that he’s staying in the race but needs more rest and “repeatedly” made references to his staff pushing too hard and not listening to his schedule.
“President Bush went to bed at 9, and President Obama made dinner at 6:30. Normal presidents strike a balance, and so does Joe Biden,” spokesperson Kevin Munoz said. “Hardly the same rigor as Donald Trump who spends half of his day ranting on Truth Social about plans that would cause a recession and other half golfing.”
The Associated Press and NewsNation’s Libbey Dean contributed to this report.