TTHE PRESIDENT was tanned, rested and largely coherent during a busy primetime interview with ABC News on July 5. Joe Biden expressed confidence, bordering on arrogance, about his presidency and his ability to defeat Donald Trump in November. And he made clear that he had no plans to give up his reelection bid. If the interview had gone badly, Biden would surely step aside next week. That now seems less likely.
Wearing no tie and sometimes visibly impatient, the 81-year-old president refused to entertain the possibility that his presence at the top of the ticket had become a burden for Democrats in lower positions, as polls suggested. “Look, I mean, if the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I would get out of the race,” Biden said. “But the Lord Almighty doesn’t come down. I mean, these hypotheticals.”