Biden has scheduled his first interview after his shaky debate performance
By Hadas Gold, CNN
(CNN) — President Joe Biden has scheduled his first television interview following his disastrous debate with former President Trump last week that led many within Biden’s own party to question whether he should be the Democratic nominee.
ABC will air parts of George Stephanopoulos’ interview with Biden on Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET on “World News Tonight with David Muir.” The extended interview will air Sunday on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
At last week’s debate, hosted by CNN, Biden struggled to complete sentences at times and often looked lost as Trump pumped out falsehoods, urgently raising questions about Biden’s age and ability to serve a second term.
The interview is a major get for ABC News and an important moment for Biden, following his halting debate performance. Although Biden has made several public appearances since the debate, he has read prepared remarks at those events.
This will be his first off-the-cuff appearance since the debate. Several White House allies have publicly and privately called for Biden to immediately hold some sort of live interview or press conference to help assuage fears over the president’s acuity.
ABC did not immediately respond a request for comment about whether it plans to publish the full unedited version of the interview. Due to timing constraints, networks usually edit down interviews for shows.
Biden’s last major interview was with David Muir in Normandy last month. He previously spoke to CNN’s Erin Burnett on May 8 and with Time magazine’s Massimo Calabresi on May 28.
The ABC interview will be his fourth major television interview of 2024, according to a CNN tally. Biden has held fewer interviews than his recent predecessors.
This story has been updated with additional context and developments.
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Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Biden’s most recent interview. It was with David Muir in June.
