President Biden defied his critics and claimed during an interview on Monday that he is in great form and doesn’t need any help with his speeches – not from notes or a teleprompter.
‘I’m on the horse,’ Biden angrily insisted when NBC’s Lester Holt asked if Biden would look to ‘get back on the horse’ ahead of a second debate with Donald Trump in September. ‘I’ve done 22 major events and thousands of people. Overwhelming crowds. A lot happening. I’m on the horse.’
‘What I’m doing is going out and demonstrating to the American people that I have command of all my faculties, that I don’t need notes, I don’t need teleprompters,’ Biden continued. ‘I can go out and answer any questions at all, and I stood there when NATO was in town, stood there for an hour and answered questions.’
Biden remains under pressure from many within his party to step aside and allow another candidate to face Trump in November following what most have labeled a disastrous presidential debate last month.
Many found Biden’s performance during the debate indicative of a man who, in the next four years, might struggle as age catches up with him: A voter from Georgia told CNN’s John King that she didn’t ‘feel comfortable with Biden’s age’ or with ‘Trump’s mouth.’
Holt confronted Biden with these concerns, asking if Biden worried that he might suffer ‘another performance … on that level?’
Biden dismissed the concern, saying in a mumbled whisper, ‘I don’t plan on having another performance on that level.’
The candidates are next scheduled to debate in September, and Biden affirmed he would participate, but he refused to be drawn on seeking another debate in the meantime, dodging the suggestion that Trump offered a third debate as a chance for Biden to ‘redeem’ himself.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has privately encouraged lawmakers to continue pressuring Biden to reconsider his bid for re-election even as she publicly backs him to beat Trump, according to The Hill.
The party remains at odds about whether they can convince Biden to step down from the ticket, but some have admitted that those efforts must take a ‘back seat’ following the attempt on Trump’s life, arguing that the party needed to focus on security and unifying language as the country tries to make sense of what happened.