Biden refuses to take cognitive test, denies he's losing to Trump
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President Biden Friday flatly ruled out taking a cognitive test or submitting to an independent medical examination to determine if he has any neurological conditions, insisting he had the energy and ability to run for president and defeat former President Trump.
Why it matters: In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, the president avoided the verbal flubs and unfinished sentences that defined his disastrous debate performance last week.
- His answers were a mix of offense, defense — and denialism about the state of the race.
- "I have a cognitive test every single day," Biden said when Stephanopoulos pressed him about taking a cognitive test. "Everything I do. Not only am I campaigning, I am running the world."
- Only "the Lord Almighty" could convince Biden that he should drop out of the race, he said.
- Biden said, like has in the past, that he didn't believe the many polls that indicate he's trailing former President Trump and insisted that he can win in November.
- "All the pollsters I talk to tell me it's a tossup," he said. "There's a lot of time left in this campaign."
Driving the news: Biden sat for the interview after a rally in Madison, Wis., as part of his campaign's strategy to prove that he has the capacity and energy to run for president after his poor debate performance.
- It's unclear whether his interview will do anything to quell the growing concerns in the Democratic Party about his candidacy.
- "Some of it felt sad," said David Axelrod, a former senior Obama official, referring to Biden's answer on the age question. "He seemed to be hiding from reality."
- "Someone needs to be honest with him" about where he stands in the polls, Axelrod said. "His portrait of where he is in the race doesn't comport with reality."
Zoom in: Biden repeated earlier assertions that he had a poor debate because he had a really bad cold."
- Asked whether he watched his debate performance, Biden said, "I don't think I did. No."
- And he offered a forceful defense of his administrations and his personal accomplishments.
- "I was also the guy that expanded NATO. I was also the guy that grew the economy," he said. "All the individual things that were done were ideas I had or I fulfilled."
Zoom out: While Biden was campaigning in a must-win state, members of his own party were publicly and privately airing their deep concerns about Biden's ability to beat Trump.
- In the Senate, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is organizing a group of Senate Democrats to talk about Biden's path forward in the 2024 election.
- In the House, the number of Democrats calling for Biden to withdraw from the race grew to four. One of them, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill) said on CNN it was "disturbing" that Biden hadn't watched his debate performance. "The president of the United States doesn't have the vigor."
- "This is about pragmatic politics," he said. "All that really matters is avoiding a Trump presidency."
The other side: Before taking off from Madison, Biden told the press pool who travels with him on Air Force One that he's spoken to at least 20 lawmakers and "they're telling me to stay in the race."
- As for Warner's effort, Biden was dismissive. The Virginia senator "is the only one considering that," he said.
- The president also took some pot shots at the press.
- "You've been wrong about everything so far. You were wrong about 2020. You were wrong about 2022. We were gonna get wiped out — remember the red wave?" he said, according to a pool report.
Editor's note: The story has been updated with additional reporting throughout.
