ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos said Tuesday that he doesn’t believe President Joe Biden can serve a second term, four days after interviewing the incumbent following his worrisome debate performance late last month.
“Do you think Biden should step down?” an anonymous person on the street in Manhattan asked the political commentator in a 20-second video posted Tuesday afternoon by TMZ. “You’ve talked to him more than anybody else has lately.”
“I don’t think he can serve four more years,” Stephanopoulos responded as he walked away. The pedestrian replied: “You don’t think he can serve four more years? All right, that’s an answer.”
Hours after the clip was published, Stephanopoulos said he regretted answering the question.
“Earlier today, I responded to a question from a passerby. I shouldn’t have,” he told TMZ. An ABC spokesperson added, “George expressed his own point of view and not the position of ABC News.”
On Friday, Stephanopoulos conducted a 22-minute post-debate interview with Biden. During the exclusive sit-down, the 81-year-old president failed to allay voters’ concerns about his health and age following the CNN debate on June 27. Biden described his performance that night as a “bad episode” and insisted he has no “serious condition,” but he declined to take an independent cognitive test to prove that claim.
“Look, I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden told Stephanopoulos. “Every day, I’ve had tests. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, I’m running the world. And that’s not — it sounds like hyperbole, but we are the central nation of the world.”
Biden also refused to withdraw from the race, saying he would consider doing so only if convinced by divine intervention.
“If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race’, I’d get out of the race, but the Lord Almighty’s not coming down,” he told the ABC host.
On Monday, Biden vowed repeatedly that he would not step down — in a letter to Hill Democrats, an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, and a conference call with prominent donors.
Although he continues to insist that he’s staying in the race against former president Donald Trump, more Democrats are calling for Biden to bow out. Seven House Democrats have so far publicly called on the president to step aside in favor of a younger candidate, like Vice President Kamala Harris.
At least three other House Democrats urged Biden to withdraw in a private call with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) on Sunday. But Representative Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), one of the lawmakers who indicated in the private conversation that he wanted an end to Biden’s reelection bid, reversed course and backed the presumptive Democratic nominee. His statement came as House Democrats held a caucus meeting about Biden’s political future Tuesday morning.