The White House is doing everything it can to get President Joe Biden in front of cameras and in public as quickly as possible on July 4, after calls grew within his party for him to resign following his disastrous debate.
Biden’s advisers had already scheduled a recorded interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos to try to fend off calls from lawmakers and donors who wanted to show he’s still ready to campaign.
But after a meeting with the nation’s governors on Wednesday failed to quell growing calls for his ouster from the Democratic ticket, ABC announced hours later that the full interview — which had been scheduled to air in parts on Saturday and Sunday mornings — would now air all at once on Friday night.
During the 8 p.m. primetime broadcast, Americans will get their first extended look at the president in a question-and-answer format — albeit not live — as Biden became increasingly inactive during Thursday’s debate with Donald Trump, spouting off-color phrases and appearing to repeatedly lose track.
President Joe Biden’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos will now air Friday amid pressure from advocates to prove he can still campaign effectively after last week’s debate.
“The panic among elected Democrats at the bottom of the ballot box has not gone away and the negative media coverage and information flow about Biden’s debate debacle has only increased,” former senior adviser to Mitt Romney Kevin Madden told DailyMail.com.
“As a result, the White House is motivated more by necessity than intent to schedule a major interview. There is an urgency to get the president out so he can address the blowback head-on.”
However, the move comes after days of wasted time, with leading members of his own party expressing doubts about his candidacy and three elected Democrats calling on him to step down.
“Friday is still a late response, considering this controversy has been going on for a week. But waiting until Sunday would have been too late,” Madden said.
The network will air portions of the interview on Friday’s “World News Tonight” with David Muir during the 6 p.m. hour. from ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir, and will broadcast the full interview in a special broadcast at 8 p.m.
The broadcast will air again Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” exposing the president to millions of viewers as polls show growing concern among voters about his fitness for another term.
The network said it will also release a full transcript of the interview so the public can scrutinize Biden’s answers as critics from his own party and Republicans look for visual clues to determine whether the president, 81, is still fit for political contention.
Biden will thrust himself into the spotlight this weekend after Democratic governors said he had just days left to prove he was still viable after polls showed him slipping after the debate.
The president is hosting military veterans at the White House for traditional Fourth of July celebrations. This time around, Vice President Kamala Harris will also be there, as party insiders debate whether she would be a stronger nominee than Biden — amid indications that the party could more easily hand over its vast campaign coffers to her than to state governors waiting in the wings.
‘This Week’ host George Stephanopoulos will sit down with the president for an interview airing both Friday and Sunday
President Joe Biden saw his lead grow nationally and in swing states after the debate
Biden is also returning to battleground Wisconsin, a state he won in 2020 but where shows show him trailing Trump. He will hold a campaign event in Madison, not far from where Republicans are gathering in a few days for their party convention.
The surge in public activity comes as Biden is under pressure to make a more public presence, with allies saying he has just days left to prove himself.
“He’s got to show the American people that he can do this job,” Rep. Debbie Dingell told MSNBC. “He can’t be wrapped in a bubble right now.”
Referring to his train crash debate, an ally told the New York Times: “He knows if he does two more events like this, we’ll be in a different situation.” The White House denied the report He said Biden had only a few days to prove he was up to the challenge, and that he knows his weekend performances must go well.
CNN reported that a source on Capitol Hill considered the ABC appearance to be the most important thing. He said, “Let’s see how this interview goes, let’s see how he does on the campaign trail in Wisconsin.” And they’re going to use the next few days to make a decision.
A new poll from DailyMail shows that a whopping seven in 10 likely voters think the president should take a cognitive test after his disastrous presidential debate in Atlanta against Trump.
Biden is very active: on Thursday he will celebrate at the White House, on Friday he will campaign in the swing state of Wisconsin and on Sunday he will hold a campaign rally in Philadelphia.
Biden is under mounting pressure to once again demonstrate his acumen in front of a live audience.
“He has to go out without a script. Without an autocue and just face the press and the public. That’s critical,” former California Sen. Barbara Boxer told the LA Times.
Lanny Davis, a former Democratic Party lawyer for Michael Cohen and an expert on crisis communications, added: “Biden needs to hold one or more press conferences, without restrictions and for at least 45 minutes, to prove that he can take difficult questions and respond to them forcefully, cogently and convincingly.
“And then he should hold town hall meetings on live television and give voters the opportunity to ask him the same questions and answers.”