Polling expert Nate Silver is calling for President Biden to step down following his Friday night ABC News interview. The 22-minute interview with George Stephanopoulos was intended to calm the president’s critics following his disastrous debate performance last month, but Silver claimed the back-and-forth made him look even worse.
“This is a pretty incoherent answer including a non-sequitur [complaining] about a New York Times poll, which he incorrectly claims had him down 10 points before the debate (it was actually 3 or 4 points, depending on which version you look at),” Silver said about a clip of Biden describing how he felt throughout the debate.
Silver, who had written a morning column about Biden’s campaign earlier that Friday, claimed he had “wimped out” and deleted a line urging the president to begin transitioning the campaign to Vice President Kamala Harris. But the pollster said that following the ABC interview, he believed it was time to begin preparations for a new candidate.
“I wimped out in today’s column and deleted a line saying he should formulate a plan to transition the presidency to Harris within 30-60 days, but I’m there now,” Silver said. “Something is clearly wrong here.”
“The most generous way to put it is that he doesn’t seem in command, and that’s an extremely hard sell when you’re Commander in Chief,” Silver concluded, adding that he believes “Democrats will apply incredible amounts of pressure” to make the president resign.
Biden claimed during his interview that his poor performance and concerning disposition was caused by a mix of fatigue and illness. The president spent almost an entire week at Camp David in preparation for the debate following a long trip to Europe that included an event in France to honor the anniversary of D-Day.
Democratic allies continue to press Biden to step down from the 2024 presidential race, claiming he is suffering a mental decline that jeopardizes the election. The Biden administration and lawmakers loyal to the president have rejected such claims, repeatedly telling critics that the president remains sharp and only suffered a one-time episode during the debate.
The 81-year-old Biden navigated the 22-minute interview on Friday without any significant gaffes that could further jeopardize his faltering candidacy. The 22-minute sit-down came eight days after Biden’s disastrous debate performance, which saw over 50 million people watch the 81-year-old struggle with basic questions about his campaign.
The 20-minute talk with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos was Biden’s first TV interview following his poor performance in the first presidential debate against former president Donald Trump a week ago on June 27. It left Biden in a standoff against a not-insignificant faction of his party with four months to go until Election Day, and with just weeks until the Democratic National Convention.
Source: Fox News, ABP Live, Saudi Gazette, Newsweek, Time
