White House Pushes Back on Growing Pressure for Biden to Leave the Race

TIME

There has been growing alarm among Democrats about Joe Biden’s debate performance on Thursday, amplifying concerns he can’t beat Donald Trump in November.

Transcript

00:00And, first of all, I want to say we understand the concerns.

00:03We get it.

00:04The president did not have a great night, as you all know, and many of you reached out

00:08during the debate.

00:10The president had a cold.

00:11He had a hoarse voice.

00:12You all heard it.

00:13That's why you reached out.

00:14But I will say this, and the president said this over the past couple of days, certainly

00:19right after the debate.

00:21He knows how to do the job, and he knows how to do the job, not because he says it, because

00:26his record proves it.

00:27Joe Biden is a person.

00:30Take away his title.

00:33He is someone who has dealt with tragedy.

00:36He is someone who has confronted that head on.

00:39He is someone who knows how to get back up once you've been knocked down.

00:45That is something that he understands very, very well, and I think, and we believe, that's

00:49something that many of Americans across the country understand as well.

00:52We understand.

00:53I'm not taking away from what you all saw or what the American people saw.

00:57We understand.

00:58It was a bad night.

01:00It is not uncommon for incumbents to have a bad night on their first debate.

01:05Pelosi said it's a legitimate question to ask if this is an episode or is this is a

01:11condition.

01:13Which one is it?

01:14I would not see this as an episode.

01:16I would see this as what it was and what we believe it to be, which is it was a bad night.

01:22So, look, I will say that the president is looking forward, certainly to hosting the

01:26leaders of our 31 NATO allies.

01:29As you know, two additional countries have joined NATO, and that's because, again, of

01:35the president's leadership.

01:37Does President Biden, at 81 years old, have Alzheimer's, any form of dementia or degenerative

01:44illness that might cause these sorts of lapses?

01:49And it's a yes or no question.

01:51And if you don't know, why don't you, as one of his senior staff members, know?

01:57I have an answer for you.

01:58Are you ready for it?

01:59Yes.

02:00It's a no.

02:01And I hope you're asking the other guy the same exact question.

02:02We want to turn the page on this.

02:04And we want to turn the page for the American people as well, because we know that they

02:08need to see him out there.

02:09He's going to continue to be out there.

02:10He has been.

02:12And we understand how important that is.

02:14And so we're going to turn the page.

02:15We're going to get out, get out there across the country.

02:19Americans are going to see him for themselves.

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