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      For George Stephanopoulos, 22 Minutes of Probing the Personal.

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      It was, in the end, an interview as personal as it was political, a cross-examination more focused on the psyche and the inescapable reality of aging than on any points of policy or governance.Respectfully but firmly, the ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos on Friday pressed President Biden, again and again, on the basic questions that Americans had asked themselves over the past eight days, since 51 million people saw a diminished Mr. Biden struggle to perform on the debate stage.“Are you more frail?”“Have there been more lapses?”“Have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination?”And as Mr. Biden dismissed all those concerns one by one — flicking away the cascading worries about his health, his electability, his capacity to serve in his office for four additional years — Mr. Stephanopoulos zeroed in on the matters of pride, dignity and self-worth swirling beneath the surface.“Are you sure,” the anchor asked, “you’re being honest with yourself?”At 81, Mr. Biden is 18 years older than his interlocutor. The president arrived at the ABC interview on Friday tanned and tieless, his top two shirt buttons undone, making every effort to project youth and vitality. Yet a viewer could not help but imagine the mop-haired Mr. Stephanopoulos in the role of an adult son, guiding an elderly parent toward a conclusion that may be difficult, and deeply painful, to accept.It is too soon to say if their 22-minute encounter on Friday, taped in the library of a Wisconsin middle school and broadcast by ABC in prime time, will count among the most consequential interviews in presidential history. But it carried some of the highest stakes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Read the Full Transcript of President Biden’s ABC News Interview

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      ABC News taped its interview with President Biden on Friday afternoon and aired it at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Following is a transcript of the interview, which lasted about 20 minutes, between George Stephanopoulos and the president, as released by ABC News. GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. President, thank you for doing this.PRESIDENT BIDEN: Thank you for having me.STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s start with the debate. Eh, you and your team said, have said you had a bad night. But your —BIDEN: Sure did.STEPHANOPOULOS: But your friend Nancy Pelosi actually framed the question that I think is on the minds of millions of Americans. Was this a bad episode or the sign of a more serious condition?BIDEN: 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 and — and a bad night.STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, you say you were exhausted. And — and I know you’ve said that before as well, but you came — and you did have a tough month. But you came home from Europe about 11 or 12 days before the debate, spent six days in Camp David. Why wasn’t that enough rest time, enough recovery time?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Biden Says He Has Not Had a Cognitive Test and Doesn’t Need One

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      President Biden said in an interview on Friday that he has not undergone a cognitive exam, but argued that his record as president should be proof enough that he is mentally fit to lead the nation.He was repeatedly pressed about his cognitive abilities in his first major interview since his disastrous debate performance set off calls for him to drop out of the race. George Stephanopoulos of ABC News asked him pointedly if he would be willing to undergo a neurological and cognitive test.“I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world,” Mr. Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.EXCLUSIVE: Pres. Biden would not commit to an independent cognitive test when pressed in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.https://t.co/hlL4FaVp80 pic.twitter.com/Jg2SepN8bN— ABC News (@ABC) July 6, 2024

      The line of questioning came after Mr. Biden was criticized for his debate performance that was often meandering and during which he was faltering in his speech. Several current and former officials have also expressed concern that moments in which Mr. Biden appears confused or listless have become more frequent.The White House has said Mr. Biden was suffering from a cold on the night of the debate. Mr. Biden has blamed himself and his travel schedule ahead of the debate. But an increasing number of Democrats and voters have expressed concern over whether Mr. Biden has the mental acuity to not only beat Mr. Trump, but to serve for another four years.“Have you had the specific cognitive tests, and have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination?” Mr. Stephanopoulos asked Mr. Biden.“No. No one said I had to,” Mr. Biden said. “They said I’m good.”Mr. Biden added that like every president, a White House doctor does travel with him. His doctor, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said Mr. Biden was “fit for duty” after undergoing a physical earlier this year, adding that he had undergone an “extremely detailed” neurological exam that did not turn up evidence of stroke, neurological disorders or Parkinson’s disease.After the debate, Mr. Biden said his doctor looked at him and said, “you’re exhausted.”Mr. Biden also did not commit to taking a cognitive test in the future to assure voters. Instead, he issued a challenge to those concerned about his mental state. “Watch me.”“There’s a lot of time left in this campaign,” Mr. Biden said. More

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      Hakeem Jeffries Plans to Discuss Biden’s Candidacy With Top House Democrats

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      Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, has scheduled a virtual meeting on Sunday with senior House Democrats to discuss President Biden’s candidacy and the path forward, according to a senior official familiar with the plan.The session, which is to include the ranking members of congressional committees who make up the top echelons of the party in the House, comes at a time of profound worry among Democrats on Capitol Hill about Mr. Biden’s poor performance at last week’s presidential debate. House Democrats have not met as a group since, even as concerns have mounted about Mr. Biden’s viability as a candidate and the impact he could have on his party’s ability to win back control of the chamber and hold the Senate should he remain in the race. Mr. Jeffries has been in listening mode all week, refraining from pressuring Democrats to rally around the president but also encouraging them not to be rash in their public pronouncements as Mr. Biden and his team determine the best path forward.But Democrats have begun to splinter. Four in the House — Representatives Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Mike Quigley of Illinois — have called for the president to withdraw, while others have made public their serious concerns about his ability to prevail in the race.On Friday, Mr. Quigley said he had had a “hard time” getting to the point of urging the president to get out of the race.But, he told MSNBC, “clearly, the alternative now is a very bleak scenario with, I would say, almost no hope of succeeding — and it doesn’t just affect the White House. It affects all of Congress and our future.”Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, has been working to organize a meeting of Democrats in his chamber to discuss their concerns about Mr. Biden’s candidacy and what should be done, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the effort who spoke about it on the condition of anonymity. More

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      Some of Biden’s Upcoming Fund-Raising Events Face New Uncertainty

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      Some of President Biden’s fund-raising events in the coming weeks are in jeopardy, with one potential Wisconsin event failing to materialize and a Texas event up in the air after his poor debate performance against Donald J. Trump.Mr. Biden’s fund-raising schedule is often fluid, as the White House and the campaign juggle the complicated logistics of official events with the competing demands of donors and finance operatives. But the aftermath of his debate performance has added an additional layer of uncertainty, with a growing group of major donors calling on Mr. Biden to drop his re-election campaign and make way for a replacement at the top of the ticket. The Biden campaign had discussed sending Mr. Biden to Wisconsin for a late July fund-raiser, according to three people briefed on the plans. But donors who had committed to giving large sums and attending began withdrawing soon after the debate ended.The campaign had hoped to raise $1 million from the event, but after the debate, campaign officials reset the event’s goal to $500,000, according to one person involved in arranging it. Even that proved to be more than Wisconsin donors were willing to give to Mr. Biden. Plans for the event are now off.Another fund-raiser under consideration was to be paired with an official event in mid-July at the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library in Austin, Texas, where Mr. Biden will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, according to two people briefed on the planning. The fund-raiser was to be hosted by Luci Baines Johnson, the former president’s daughter. But it is unclear whether the event will proceed, according to the people briefed on the planning.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How to Watch Biden’s ABC News Interview With George Stephanopoulos

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      President Biden on Friday will sit down with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News for his first television interview since his poor debate performance last week sent his campaign into damage control mode and raised concerns about his ability to stay in the race.Here’s how to watch it:The first clip from the interview, which is being taped while Mr. Biden campaigns in Wisconsin, will air on “World News Tonight with David Muir” at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time on Friday.The full conversation will then be broadcast during a prime-time special on ABC starting at 8 p.m., both Eastern and Pacific time. If you miss it tonight, you have another chance on Sunday: The interview will run again in its entirety on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” Check your local station for air times.You can also watch in the ABC smartphone app, on ABC.com and via connected devices (Roku, Apple TV+ and Amazon Fire TV). More

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      Biden Stumbles Over His Words as He Tries to Steady Re-Election Campaign

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      President Biden sought to steady his re-election campaign by talking with two Black radio hosts for interviews broadcast on Thursday, but he spoke haltingly at points during one interview and struggled to find the right phrase in the other, saying that he was proud to have been “the first Black woman to serve with a Black president.”He also stumbled over his words during a four-minute Fourth of July speech to military families at the White House, beginning a story about former President Donald J. Trump, calling him “one of our colleagues, the former president” and then adding, “probably shouldn’t say, at any rate” before abruptly ending the story and moving on.Mr. Biden made the mistake on WURD radio, based in Philadelphia, as he tried to deliver a line that he has repeated before about having pride in serving as vice president for President Barack Obama. Earlier in the interview, he boasted about appointing the first Black woman to the Supreme Court and picking the first Black woman to be vice president.The president also made a mistake earlier in the interview when he asserted that he had been the first president elected statewide in Delaware. He appeared to mean that he was the first Catholic in the state to be elected statewide, going on to speak admiringly of John F. Kennedy, a Catholic.Mr. Biden and his top aides have said the president’s activities in the coming days are part of a series of campaign efforts designed to prove to voters, donors and activists that the president’s debate debacle was nothing more than what he has called “a bad night.”Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for Mr. Biden’s campaign, criticized the news media for making note of the president’s stumbles.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More