President Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that he might reconsider his decision to remain within the race against Donald Trump if he experienced a health problem.
“Is there anything that you personally would say, 'When I see this, I'm going to reevaluate it?'” BET host Ed Gordon asked Biden in an interview on Tuesday.
“If I had a health problem and someone, a doctor, came to me and said, 'You have this problem or that problem,'” Biden responded, based on a video clip shared before the printed on Wednesday.
Biden, 81, is coming under increasing pressure from members of his own party to drop out of the race following his disastrous debate with 78-year-old Trump in late June.
Earlier, California Rep. Adam Schiff – who is taken into account the clear favorite to win one in all the powerful state's two coveted Senate seats in November – called on Biden to resign on Wednesday.
The Democratic incumbent's hoarse, stiff demeanor and his at times incomprehensible and unfocused answers in the talk caused panic amongst his allies, who wondered whether he could run an efficient campaign against Trump or remain in office for one more 4 years.
The Biden team said through the debate that the president had a chilly, and later he said he was exhausted after a strenuous international trip. He reportedly assured nervous Democrats after the talk that he had been examined by a physician and said his health was positive.
White House physician Kevin O'Connor described Biden in February as a “healthy, active, robust 81-year-old man.”
Biden acknowledged his poor performance several times. “I made a serious mistake throughout the debate,” he said within the BET interview.
But the president and his campaign team have rejected calls for his resignation, stressing that he’s the Democrat with the perfect likelihood of defeating the Republican ex-president.
“You may remember, Ed, when I originally ran, I said I was going to be a transition candidate, and I thought I could put that behind me and pass it on to someone else,” Biden told Gordon.
“But I didn't expect things to be so, so, so divided,” he said. “And frankly, I think the only thing that comes with age is a little bit of wisdom. And I think I've proven that I know how to get things done for the country, despite the fact that [unintelligible] we didn't get it done.”
“But there is more to do, and I am not prepared to back down from it,” Biden said.
The full interview is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, in the course of the third day of the Republican National Convention.
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