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Israeli Jets Bomb Sites in Yemen Linked to Iran-Backed Houthis.txt | By Aaron Boxerman, Ronen Bergman, Shuaib Almosawa and Eric Schmitt
July 20, 2024
Want to stay updated on what’s happening in Israel and Yemen? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.
Israeli fighter jets bombed a port in Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on Saturday in retaliation for the group’s deadly drone attack in Tel Aviv a day earlier. It was the first time Israel has publicly struck the group following months of escalating Houthi attacks.
The airstrikes targeted a power station as well as gas and oil depots in the area of the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, according to a Houthi spokesman and two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Israel said it had struck sites used for military purposes, although Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said that Israel had attacked some “dual use” targets that have both civilian and military functions.
Admiral Hagari said the operation was “one of the farthest and longest ever conducted by the Israeli air force.” He called the port a major supply stop for Iran to funnel weapons to its Houthi allies in Yemen, who have fired over 200 missiles and drones at Israel over the past several months.
But the Hodeidah port is also a crucial point for all goods, including desperately needed food and oil, to enter northwestern Yemen, much of which is controlled by the Houthis; at least two-thirds of the impoverished country’s population lives under the group’s rule.
The Ministry of Health in Houthi-controlled Sana, Yemen’s capital, said at least 80 people were wounded in the attack, most of them with severe burns, according to The Associated Press.
Yahya Sarea, the Houthi spokesman, said that the strike on the port would not deter the militia from engaging in additional attacks against Israel. The group says it fires munitions at Israel as an expression of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the war between Israel and Hamas is now in its 10th month.
“We will not stop our operations in support of our brothers in Gaza, whatever the consequences,” Mr. Sarea said in a televised statement. “With God’s help, we are preparing for a long war with this enemy until the aggression stops.”
On Friday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for launching a long-range drone that struck Tel Aviv, killing one Israeli and wounding several others. In addition to the hundreds of missiles and drones they have fired at Israel, the Houthis have menaced ships passing through the Red Sea to try to blockade the Israeli port of Eilat.
ImageA large damaged building stands against a mostly clear sky.
Israel is already fighting a war against Hamas on its southern front in Gaza and trading fire incessantly with Hezbollah in Lebanon to the north — two groups also backed by Iran. Its response on Saturday appeared calibrated not to incite a full-blown war on a third front.
The Israeli attack in Yemen was nonetheless a striking moment in a war that has already seen Israel exchange fire with Iran and its allies across the Middle East. But the Israeli military said Saturday that the Israeli public was advised to continue daily activities, indicating it did not expect an imminent escalation.
Since November, Houthi fighters have launched attacks on Red Sea shipping, forcing many commercial vessels to take a costly detour around southern Africa. In response, the United States, Britain and their allies have struck hundreds of Houthi targets in Yemen. In January, the State Department designated the Houthis as a terrorist group.
But the United States was not involved in the strikes on Saturday, nor did it coordinate or assist Israel with the strikes, the National Security Council said.
“We fully recognize and acknowledge Israel’s right to self-defense,” it added in a statement.
An Israeli military official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said Israel had notified its allies in advance of the attack.
Middle East Crisis: Live Updates
Updated
July 23, 2024, 8:13 a.m. ET2 hours ago
2 hours ago
Palestinian rivals hail a declaration of unity in Beijing, but the news is met with a shrug at home.
The military used tanks and fighter jets to strike what it said were Hamas facilities.
Israeli raids in West Bank kill at least 3, Palestinian officials say, and other news.
The strike could aggravate an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which has been devastated by years of civil war and where much of the public depends on aid from abroad to stave off starvation.
Mohammed Albasha, a senior Middle East expert at Navanti Group, a research organization, said that the damage from the airstrikes would likely lead to severe fuel shortages throughout northern Yemen, “impacting essential services such as diesel generators for hospitals.”
“The damage to the Hodeidah power station, combined with the intense summer heat, will further exacerbate the suffering of the local population,” Mr. Albasha added.
A large fire, seen from a distance across water, with a huge plume of black smoke rising into the night sky.
The Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv on Friday — which struck close to an American diplomatic compound — was a rare breach of Israel’s air defenses. Most missiles and drones fired by the Houthis at Israel have been shot down by Israel, the United States and its allies.
The Israeli military said its surveillance apparently had managed to pick up the drone, but officers had failed to identify it as a threat and to shoot it down.
After the Houthis began firing missiles and drones at Israel, the Israeli military realized it lacked an immediate list of targets in Yemen, said a senior Israeli defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Israel’s military intelligence directorate established a team to begin building out a bank of sites to strike should the moment arrive, the official said.
But until Saturday, Israel had not launched a full-on attack against the Houthis in Yemen, which is more than 1,000 miles away. The drone strike in Tel Aviv appeared to tip the scales, and by Saturday afternoon, Israeli fighter jets were spotted flying in broad daylight toward Yemen.
Around 6 p.m. local time, the Israeli attack on the port commenced. The strike ignited an enormous fire across the port area, possibly from burning fuel.
Muneer Ahmed, a resident of Hodeidah, said he had heard about 12 blasts in two barrages and could see smoke rising, even though he was about two miles from the bombing site.
“The strikes were so intense that they reminded us of the early days of war,” said Mr. Ahmed, referring to the Saudi coalition’s bombing of the city that began in 2015.
After the attacks, residents in Hodeidah rushed to gas stations, fearing a shortage, and long lines were forming around the city, Mr. Ahmed said.
Israel’s leaders were quick to hail the attack as a step toward restoring deterrence. Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, said that the fire burning in Hodeidah was “seen across the Middle East, and the significance is clear.”
“The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them — and we will do this wherever it may be required,” said Mr. Gallant.
Ten men and boys sitting on tiles beneath five banners.
Israel had little choice but to retaliate, but the attack in Yemen was unlikely to put an end to the fighting, said Danny Citrinowicz, a former Israeli intelligence officer and a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
The only way to prevent the Houthis from continuing to fire at Israel would be a cease-fire deal to end the war in Gaza, he said. Hezbollah, the politically powerful Lebanese group, has also said it will keep fighting as long as Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza continues.
Talks between Israel and Hamas on a comprehensive truce have stalled, despite renewed optimism earlier this month.
“We can attack Iran’s axis as much as we want, but without such a cease-fire, we cannot end this war,” said Mr. Citrinowicz. “Even this attack will not cut the Gordian knot with which the Houthis have bound themselves to Hamas.”
| By Aaron Boxerman, Ronen Bergman, Shuaib Almosawa and Eric Schmitt
July 20, 2024
Want to stay updated on what’s happening in Israel and Yemen? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.
Israeli fighter jets bombed a port in Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on Saturday in retaliation for the group’s deadly drone attack in Tel Aviv a day earlier. It was the first time Israel has publicly struck the group following months of escalating Houthi attacks.
The airstrikes targeted | a power station as well as gas and oil depots in the area of the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, according to a Houthi spokesman and two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Israel said it had struck sites used for military purposes, although Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said that Israel had attacked some “dual use” targets that have both civilian and military functions.
Admiral Hagari said the operation was “one of the farthest and longest ever conducted by the Israeli air force.” He called the port a major supply stop for Iran to funnel weapons to its Houthi allies in Yemen, who have fired over 200 missiles and drones at Israel over the past several months.
But the Hodeidah port is also a crucial point for all goods, including desperately needed food and oil, to enter northwestern Yemen, much of which is controlled by the Houthis; at least two-thirds of the impoverished country’s population lives under the group’s rule.
The Ministry of Health in Houthi-controlled Sana, Yemen’s capital, said at least 80 people were wounded in the attack, most of them with severe burns, according to The Associated Press.
Yahya Sarea, the Houthi spokesman, said that the strike on the port would not deter the militia from engaging in additional attacks against Israel. The group says it fires munitions at Israel as an expression of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the war between Israel and Hamas is now in its 10th month.
“We will not stop our operations in support of our brothers in Gaza, whatever the consequences,” Mr. Sarea said in a televised statement. “With God’s help, we are preparing for a long war with this enemy until the aggression stops.”
On Friday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for launching a long-range drone that struck Tel Aviv, killing one Israeli and wounding several others. In addition to the hundreds of missiles and drones they have fired at Israel, the Houthis have menaced ships passing through the Red Sea to try to blockade the Israeli port of Eilat.
ImageA large damaged building stands against a mostly clear sky.
Israel is already fighting a war against Hamas on its southern front in Gaza and trading fire incessantly with Hezbollah in Lebanon to the north — two groups also backed by Iran. Its response on Saturday appeared calibrated not to incite a full-blown war on a third front.
The Israeli attack in Yemen was nonetheless a striking moment in a war that has already seen Israel exchange fire with Iran and its allies across the Middle East. But the Israeli military said Saturday that the Israeli public was advised to continue daily activities, indicating it did not expect an imminent escalation.
Since November, Houthi fighters have launched attacks on Red Sea shipping, forcing many commercial vessels to take a costly detour around southern Africa. In response, the United States, Britain and their allies have struck hundreds of Houthi targets in Yemen. In January, the State Department designated the Houthis as a terrorist group.
But the United States was not involved in the strikes on Saturday, nor did it coordinate or assist Israel with the strikes, the National Security Council said.
“We fully recognize and acknowledge Israel’s right to self-defense,” it added in a statement.
An Israeli military official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said Israel had notified its allies in advance of the attack.
Middle East Crisis: Live Updates
Updated
July 23, 2024, 8:13 a.m. ET2 hours ago
2 hours ago
Palestinian rivals hail a declaration of unity in Beijing, but the news is met with a shrug at home.
The military used tanks and fighter jets to strike what it said were Hamas facilities.
Israeli raids in West Bank kill at least 3, Palestinian officials say, and other news.
The strike could aggravate an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which has been devastated by years of civil war and where much of the public depends on aid from abroad to stave off starvation.
Mohammed Albasha, a senior Middle East expert at Navanti Group, a research organization, said that the damage from the airstrikes would likely lead to severe fuel shortages throughout northern Yemen, “impacting essential services such as diesel generators for hospitals.”
“The damage to the Hodeidah power station, combined with the intense summer heat, will further exacerbate the suffering of the local population,” Mr. Albasha added.
A large fire, seen from a distance across water, with a huge plume of black smoke rising into the night sky.
The Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv on Friday — which struck close to an American diplomatic compound — was a rare breach of Israel’s air defenses. Most missiles and drones fired by the Houthis at Israel have been shot down by Israel, the United States and its allies.
The Israeli military said its surveillance apparently had managed to pick up the drone, but officers had failed to identify it as a threat and to shoot it down.
After the Houthis began firing missiles and drones at Israel, the Israeli military realized it lacked an immediate list of targets in Yemen, said a senior Israeli defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Israel’s military intelligence directorate established a team to begin building out a bank of sites to strike should the moment arrive, the official said.
But until Saturday, Israel had not launched a full-on attack against the Houthis in Yemen, which is more than 1,000 miles away. The drone strike in Tel Aviv appeared to tip the scales, and by Saturday afternoon, Israeli fighter jets were spotted flying in broad daylight toward Yemen.
Around 6 p.m. local time, the Israeli attack on the port commenced. The strike ignited an enormous fire across the port area, possibly from burning fuel.
Muneer Ahmed, a resident of Hodeidah, said he had heard about 12 blasts in two barrages and could see smoke rising, even though he was about two miles from the bombing site.
“The strikes were so intense that they reminded us of the early days of war,” said Mr. Ahmed, referring to the Saudi coalition’s bombing of the city that began in 2015.
After the attacks, residents in Hodeidah rushed to gas stations, fearing a shortage, and long lines were forming around the city, Mr. Ahmed said.
Israel’s leaders were quick to hail the attack as a step toward restoring deterrence. Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, said that the fire burning in Hodeidah was “seen across the Middle East, and the significance is clear.”
“The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them — and we will do this wherever it may be required,” said Mr. Gallant.
Ten men and boys sitting on tiles beneath five banners.
Israel had little choice but to retaliate, but the attack in Yemen was unlikely to put an end to the fighting, said Danny Citrinowicz, a former Israeli intelligence officer and a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
The only way to prevent the Houthis from continuing to fire at Israel would be a cease-fire deal to end the war in Gaza, he said. Hezbollah, the politically powerful Lebanese group, has also said it will keep fighting as long as Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza continues.
Talks between Israel and Hamas on a comprehensive truce have stalled, despite renewed optimism earlier this month.
“We can attack Iran’s axis as much as we want, but without such a cease-fire, we cannot end this war,” said Mr. Citrinowicz. “Even this attack will not cut the Gordian knot with which the Houthis have bound themselves to Hamas.”
|
The Connections Companion No. 409, July 24, 2024.txt | By New York Times Games
July 23, 2024, 6:00 a.m. ET
Good morning, dear connectors. Welcome to today’s Connections forum, where you can give and receive puzzle — and emotional — support.
Be warned: This article includes hints and comments that may contain spoilers for today’s puzzle. Solve Connections first, or scroll at your own risk.
Connections is released at midnight in your time zone. In order to accommodate all time zones, there will be two Connections Companions live every day, dated based on Eastern Standard Time.
If you find yourself on the wrong companion, check the number of your puzzle, and go to this page to find the corresponding companion.
Post your solve grid in the comments and see how your score compares with the editor’s rating, and one another’s.
Sign up for the Gameplay newsletter. Each week, our puzzle editors share brain teasers, puzzles and Gameplay stories they love. Get it sent to your inbox.
Today’s difficulty
The difficulty of each puzzle is determined by averaging the ratings provided by a panel of testers who are paid to solve each puzzle in advance to help us catch bugs, inconsistencies and other issues. A higher rating means the puzzle is more difficult.
Today’s difficulty is 2.4 out of 5.
Need a hint?
In Connections, each category has a different difficulty level. Yellow is the simplest, and purple is the most difficult. Click or tap each level to reveal one of the words in that category.
🟨 Straightforward
RIB
🟩 ⬇️
THIGH
🟦 ⬇️
CALF
🟪 Tricky
SHOULDER
Further Reading
Want to give us feedback? Email us: crosswordeditors@nytimes.com
Trying to go back to Connections?
Want to learn more about how the game is made?
Leave any thoughts you have in the comments! Please follow community guidelines:
Be kind. Comments are moderated for civility.
Having a technical issue? Use the Help button in the Settings menu of the Games app.
Want to talk about Wordle or Spelling Bee? Check out Wordle Review and the Spelling Bee Forum.
See our Tips and Tricks for more useful information on Connections.
Join us here to solve Crosswords, The Mini, and other games by The New York Times.
Site Index
Site Information Navigation
© 2024 The New York Times Company
NYTCoContact UsAccessibilityWork with usAdvertiseT Brand StudioYour Ad ChoicesPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceTerms of SaleSite MapHelpSubscriptions
| By New York Times Games
July 23, 2024, 6:00 a.m. ET
Good morning, dear connectors. Welcome to today’s Connections forum, where you can give and receive puzzle — and emotional — support.
Be warned: This article includes hints and comments that may contain spoilers for today’s puzzle. Solve Connections first, or scroll at your own risk.
Connections is released at midnight in your time zone. In order to accommodate all time zones, there will be two Connections Companions live every day, dated based on Eastern Standard Time.
If you find yourself | on the wrong companion, check the number of your puzzle, and go to this page to find the corresponding companion.
Post your solve grid in the comments and see how your score compares with the editor’s rating, and one another’s.
Sign up for the Gameplay newsletter. Each week, our puzzle editors share brain teasers, puzzles and Gameplay stories they love. Get it sent to your inbox.
Today’s difficulty
The difficulty of each puzzle is determined by averaging the ratings provided by a panel of testers who are paid to solve each puzzle in advance to help us catch bugs, inconsistencies and other issues. A higher rating means the puzzle is more difficult.
Today’s difficulty is 2.4 out of 5.
Need a hint?
In Connections, each category has a different difficulty level. Yellow is the simplest, and purple is the most difficult. Click or tap each level to reveal one of the words in that category.
🟨 Straightforward
RIB
🟩 ⬇️
THIGH
🟦 ⬇️
CALF
🟪 Tricky
SHOULDER
Further Reading
Want to give us feedback? Email us: crosswordeditors@nytimes.com
Trying to go back to Connections?
Want to learn more about how the game is made?
Leave any thoughts you have in the comments! Please follow community guidelines:
Be kind. Comments are moderated for civility.
Having a technical issue? Use the Help button in the Settings menu of the Games app.
Want to talk about Wordle or Spelling Bee? Check out Wordle Review and the Spelling Bee Forum.
See our Tips and Tricks for more useful information on Connections.
Join us here to solve Crosswords, The Mini, and other games by The New York Times.
Site Index
Site Information Navigation
© 2024 The New York Times Company
NYTCoContact UsAccessibilityWork with usAdvertiseT Brand StudioYour Ad ChoicesPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceTerms of SaleSite MapHelpSubscriptions
|
After Fire Destroys Sanctuary, Landmark Dallas Church Mourns What’s Lost.txt | By Mary Beth Gahan and Kate Selig
July 20, 2024
The red brick outer walls of First Baptist Dallas Church were singed black on Saturday morning, and though they were still intact, along with the steeple at the front of the historic building, there was no sanctuary within. The roof, windows and interior were gone. And the smell of smoke lingered.
Larry Smith and his wife, Rita, two members of the church, drove 20 miles from Arlington, Texas, to see firsthand the destruction of the fire from the previous night. Other members also gathered outside.
Ms. Smith wiped tears from her eyes with a tissue as she talked about the sanctuary, with its dark wood pews and ornate carvings. There was a library in the church, she said, along with a printing shop and the offices of former pastors. “A lot of history in that building,” she said. Mr. Smith began to talk about what was lost when he trailed off, looking at the smoldering remains.
Church members and other residents of the Dallas area mourned on Saturday the severe damage to the sanctuary, a landmark in the heart of Dallas where many of the megachurch’s members have been baptized, married and memorialized.
On Friday night, the blaze, which caused the church’s roof to collapse, grew to a four-alarm fire that sent smoke billowing over the city. More than 60 firefighting units responded to the scene.
No injuries or fatalities have been reported, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue. The fire occurred in the old part of the church’s sprawling complex, where the main Sunday services are no longer held, but which has been in use since its construction in 1890.
Church officials said it was fortunate that the fire began shortly after the end of a summer Bible school event that included 2,000 children. It is too soon to know whether the sanctuary could be rebuilt, church officials said.
“We will have to see about whether we try to recreate it or do something else,” the Rev. Robert Jeffress, the church’s pastor, said in an interview on Friday.
Mr. Jeffress is known as one of the most outspoken evangelical supporters of former President Donald J. Trump. Last Sunday, he attributed Mr. Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania to God’s providence.
Capt. Robert Borse of Dallas Fire-Rescue said on Saturday afternoon that the cause of the fire was still undetermined. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting with the investigation, he said. An official with the A.T.F.’s Dallas Field Division said it is common for the bureau to help with fires that take place at churches and businesses.
First Baptist Dallas was founded in 1868, just a few decades after the founding of Dallas itself. It began with a fellowship of 11 people. Today, it has 16,000 members and a campus that spans multiple blocks of downtown Dallas. On a normal weekend, thousands flock to the church for its services, and millions more watch online, according to church officials.
The brick sanctuary is surrounded by skyscrapers, parking garages and new residential buildings, a testament to how the city has grown up around the building. Less than a mile away, a replica log cabin shows how John Neely Bryan built the first home in the city near that spot in the 1840s.
A large column of thick gray smoke rises above the skyline of Dallas on Friday.
Seven years after the historic sanctuary was built, George Truett became pastor of the church and held the role for nearly 50 years. He was once asked by President Woodrow Wilson to speak to troops overseas during World War I.
Five presidents have visited the church, according to Ben Lovvorn, the executive pastor. Other notable visitors include former Vice President Mike Pence and Billy Graham, who was a member of First Baptist Dallas for 55 years.
Clint Pressley, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest denomination of Protestants, compared the fire in Dallas to the 2019 fire that ravaged the roof and the spire of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
“If the SBC had a Notre Dame it would be” First Baptist, Mr. Pressley wrote on X. “This is heartbreaking.”
Judge Clay Jenkins, the chief executive of Dallas County, recounted giving a speech in the sanctuary after a near-fatal car accident in 1993 at age 29.
“It’s always sad that to see an iconic historic place like that burned,” he said.
In 2013, First Baptist completed a $135 million restoration of its campus that included the construction of a 178,000-square-foot worship center with a stadium-style video screen and enough pews to seat 3,000 people.
Mark Lamster, the architecture critic of The Dallas Morning News and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, said the campus’s design integrates its private space into the public cityscape, in such a way that a passers-by could cross the complex using a walkway that belongs to the church, but which is not clearly private property.
“They’re pushing into public space,” Mr. Lamster said of the architecture, noting a parallel between the design and the church’s “evangelical imperative” to spread Christianity.
Before the fire, the older sanctuary remained in use for weddings, funerals and band-led worship.
“A lot of people have been touched by the Lord in that building,” said Mr. Lovvorn, the executive pastor. He added that his family had been part of the church for five generations, and that he had been raised sitting in the sanctuary.
By Saturday afternoon, light smoke continued to rise from the collapsed interior of the sanctuary, and one fire engine remained on site. But the crowd of onlookers had mostly cleared.
Church officials said they would still hold a Sunday worship service, but that it would take place at the Dallas Convention Center, which is within walking distance of the church.
“Just as we have been for the last 150 years, we’ll be worshiping in downtown Dallas,” Mr. Lovvorn said.
Ruth Graham and Hank Sanders contributed reporting.
Fire Engulfs Landmark Church in Downtown Dallas
0:22
Kate Selig is a Times national reporter and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their career. More about Kate Selig
A version of this article appears in print on July 21, 2024, Section A, Page 21 of the New York edition with the headline: Congregation in Dallas Mourns Loss of Sanctuary. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
See more on: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Southern Baptist Convention, Mike Pence, Donald Trump, Woodrow Wilson
Site Index
Site Information Navigation
© 2024 The New York Times Company
NYTCoContact UsAccessibilityWork with usAdvertiseT Brand StudioYour Ad ChoicesPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceTerms of SaleSite MapHelpSubscriptions
| By Mary Beth Gahan and Kate Selig
July 20, 2024
The red brick outer walls of First Baptist Dallas Church were singed black on Saturday morning, and though they were still intact, along with the steeple at the front of the historic building, there was no sanctuary within. The roof, windows and interior were gone. And the smell of smoke lingered.
Larry Smith and his wife, Rita, two members of the church, drove 20 miles from Arlington, Texas, to see firsthand the destruction of the fire from the previous night. Other members also gathered outside.
| Ms. Smith wiped tears from her eyes with a tissue as she talked about the sanctuary, with its dark wood pews and ornate carvings. There was a library in the church, she said, along with a printing shop and the offices of former pastors. “A lot of history in that building,” she said. Mr. Smith began to talk about what was lost when he trailed off, looking at the smoldering remains.
Church members and other residents of the Dallas area mourned on Saturday the severe damage to the sanctuary, a landmark in the heart of Dallas where many of the megachurch’s members have been baptized, married and memorialized.
On Friday night, the blaze, which caused the church’s roof to collapse, grew to a four-alarm fire that sent smoke billowing over the city. More than 60 firefighting units responded to the scene.
No injuries or fatalities have been reported, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue. The fire occurred in the old part of the church’s sprawling complex, where the main Sunday services are no longer held, but which has been in use since its construction in 1890.
Church officials said it was fortunate that the fire began shortly after the end of a summer Bible school event that included 2,000 children. It is too soon to know whether the sanctuary could be rebuilt, church officials said.
“We will have to see about whether we try to recreate it or do something else,” the Rev. Robert Jeffress, the church’s pastor, said in an interview on Friday.
Mr. Jeffress is known as one of the most outspoken evangelical supporters of former President Donald J. Trump. Last Sunday, he attributed Mr. Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania to God’s providence.
Capt. Robert Borse of Dallas Fire-Rescue said on Saturday afternoon that the cause of the fire was still undetermined. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting with the investigation, he said. An official with the A.T.F.’s Dallas Field Division said it is common for the bureau to help with fires that take place at churches and businesses.
First Baptist Dallas was founded in 1868, just a few decades after the founding of Dallas itself. It began with a fellowship of 11 people. Today, it has 16,000 members and a campus that spans multiple blocks of downtown Dallas. On a normal weekend, thousands flock to the church for its services, and millions more watch online, according to church officials.
The brick sanctuary is surrounded by skyscrapers, parking garages and new residential buildings, a testament to how the city has grown up around the building. Less than a mile away, a replica log cabin shows how John Neely Bryan built the first home in the city near that spot in the 1840s.
A large column of thick gray smoke rises above the skyline of Dallas on Friday.
Seven years after the historic sanctuary was built, George Truett became pastor of the church and held the role for nearly 50 years. He was once asked by President Woodrow Wilson to speak to troops overseas during World War I.
Five presidents have visited the church, according to Ben Lovvorn, the executive pastor. Other notable visitors include former Vice President Mike Pence and Billy Graham, who was a member of First Baptist Dallas for 55 years.
Clint Pressley, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest denomination of Protestants, compared the fire in Dallas to the 2019 fire that ravaged the roof and the spire of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
“If the SBC had a Notre Dame it would be” First Baptist, Mr. Pressley wrote on X. “This is heartbreaking.”
Judge Clay Jenkins, the chief executive of Dallas County, recounted giving a speech in the sanctuary after a near-fatal car accident in 1993 at age 29.
“It’s always sad that to see an iconic historic place like that burned,” he said.
In 2013, First Baptist completed a $135 million restoration of its campus that included the construction of a 178,000-square-foot worship center with a stadium-style video screen and enough pews to seat 3,000 people.
Mark Lamster, the architecture critic of The Dallas Morning News and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, said the campus’s design integrates its private space into the public cityscape, in such a way that a passers-by could cross the complex using a walkway that belongs to the church, but which is not clearly private property.
“They’re pushing into public space,” Mr. Lamster said of the architecture, noting a parallel between the design and the church’s “evangelical imperative” to spread Christianity.
Before the fire, the older sanctuary remained in use for weddings, funerals and band-led worship.
“A lot of people have been touched by the Lord in that building,” said Mr. Lovvorn, the executive pastor. He added that his family had been part of the church for five generations, and that he had been raised sitting in the sanctuary.
By Saturday afternoon, light smoke continued to rise from the collapsed interior of the sanctuary, and one fire engine remained on site. But the crowd of onlookers had mostly cleared.
Church officials said they would still hold a Sunday worship service, but that it would take place at the Dallas Convention Center, which is within walking distance of the church.
“Just as we have been for the last 150 years, we’ll be worshiping in downtown Dallas,” Mr. Lovvorn said.
Ruth Graham and Hank Sanders contributed reporting.
Fire Engulfs Landmark Church in Downtown Dallas
0:22
Kate Selig is a Times national reporter and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their career. More about Kate Selig
A version of this article appears in print on July 21, 2024, Section A, Page 21 of the New York edition with the headline: Congregation in Dallas Mourns Loss of Sanctuary. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
See more on: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Southern Baptist Convention, Mike Pence, Donald Trump, Woodrow Wilson
Site Index
Site Information Navigation
© 2024 The New York Times Company
NYTCoContact UsAccessibilityWork with usAdvertiseT Brand StudioYour Ad ChoicesPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceTerms of SaleSite MapHelpSubscriptions
|
How the U.S. Has Played a Role in Venezuela’s Presidential Election.txt | By Frances Robles
Reporting from Caracas, Venezuela
Published July 20, 2024Updated July 21, 2024
Venezuelans will head to the polls on July 28 to choose a new president, an election that could determine if democracy will be restored to the South American nation. It is also a vote that the United States played a role in helping ensure would take place.
Voters will pick between a little-known diplomat named Edmundo González and President Nicolás Maduro, the autocratic leader who has been in office since 2013.
Many analysts are skeptical that Mr. Maduro would accept an electoral loss and, if that happened, it is unclear how the Biden administration would respond to a rejection of the results.
Here’s what to know about an election important to both countries.
What’s going on between the U.S. and Venezuela?
The last three American presidents have been united on one policy: hitting the Venezuelan government with tough sanctions in response to corruption, anti-democratic moves and human rights abuses.
The United States and Venezuela have not had diplomatic relations since 2019.
But while President Donald J. Trump took a hard-line approach, the Biden administration tried a different tactic, meeting privately last year with Venezuelan government officials in Qatar, where they discussed lifting sanctions that had hobbled Venezuela’s vital oil industry.
Some experts said the Biden administration’s new strategy, which many had criticized as being too lenient, helped lay a foundation for the election and energized the opposition.
That, in part, helped spur talks between the Venezuelan government and the opposition that culminated in an agreement late last year meant to pave the way for free and fair elections — though since then the Maduro administration has taken various steps to undermine the vote.
An oil rig with a pool of oil in the foreground.
What leverage does the United States hold over Venezuela?
Using executive orders and a law called the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, the United States has imposed over 350 sanctions against Venezuela in the past seven years. Mr. Trump’s administration froze Venezuelan assets in the United States.
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged President Maduro with drug trafficking and offered a $15 million reward for information resulting in his arrest.
Did President Biden lift the sanctions?
Last October, the Venezuelan government and a group of opposition parties known as the Unitary Platform signed an agreement intended to institute democratic reforms and create a path for elections.
After that deal, the Biden administration removed a ban on secondary trading on some Venezuelan bonds and eased various sanctions on oil for six months. The administration had promised to release millions of dollars for humanitarian use if the government held up its end of the bargain.
But instead, the Venezuelan government prevented a top opposition leader, María Corina Machado, who has emerged as one of the country’s most popular figures, from running for president. Dozens of opposition activists have been harassed and detained.
In April, the Biden administration allowed the sanctions relief to expire, and millions of dollars have not been released.
A large group of people sitting under a tree.
What is the Venezuelan government’s response?
The Venezuelan government considers U.S. sanctions illegal and blames Washington for the country’s economic crisis and for the exodus of nearly eight million Venezuelans.
“Migration was promoted from Washington,” Venezuela’s foreign minister, Yván Gil Pinto, told The Intercept last month. “Those who created those conditions, they must assume their responsibility, the responsibility of hurting our economy, and of creating a migrant attraction towards the United States.’’
(U.S. data show that since 2021, more than 800,000 Venezuelan migrants entered the United States, including 114,695 in the first six months of this year.)
Mr. Gil also blamed what he called Venezuela’s “far right” opposition for conspiring with the United States and predicted that, as a result, voters would reject the opposition at the polls.
What will the U.S. do if Mr. Maduro tries to manipulate the election?
Two senior U.S. government officials, who spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters, said it was important to wait and see what happens before discussing any repercussions.
The international community should not render any judgment on the electoral process until there are results, one official said, noting that the administration was closely watching whether the Maduro government engages in any last-minute moves to undermine the democratic process.
The Biden administration is particularly concerned that the Maduro government could claim victory without verifiable results, the official said, adding that the governing party is aware that its political future is pegged to the legitimacy of the vote.
Another U.S. official said that if Mr. Maduro loses — and accepts the loss — there would probably be negotiations over a transition of power, but added that those conversations had yet to take place. Such talks could include issues like amnesties, guarantees for those leaving office and establishing truth commissions.
Edmundo González, the main opposition presidential candidate in Venezuela’s presidential election, sits in a chair.
What has the opposition said about U.S. relations?
Mr. González, the former longtime diplomat running for president, is eager to normalize diplomatic relations.
“I want Venezuela and the United States to recover and go back to the friendly or just natural relationship we’ve had for many years,” he said during a discussion on Thursday sponsored by the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan research center in Washington. “It’s absurd, if not unbelievable,” he added, the number of years that Venezuela has been “without a diplomatic office in Washington.”
Political dialogue and cooperation are a must, Mr. González said.
“That’s something that we have to tackle immediately,” he added.
Frances Robles is a Times investigative reporter covering the United States and Latin America. She has been a journalist for more than 30 years. More about Frances Robles
A version of this article appears in print on July 21, 2024, Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: The Biden Administration’s Push-and-Pull Role in the Venezuelan Election. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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| By Frances Robles
Reporting from Caracas, Venezuela
Published July 20, 2024Updated July 21, 2024
Venezuelans will head to the polls on July 28 to choose a new president, an election that could determine if democracy will be restored to the South American nation. It is also a vote that the United States played a role in helping ensure would take place.
Voters will pick between a little-known diplomat named Edmundo González and President Nicolás Maduro, the autocratic leader who has been in office since 2013.
Many | analysts are skeptical that Mr. Maduro would accept an electoral loss and, if that happened, it is unclear how the Biden administration would respond to a rejection of the results.
Here’s what to know about an election important to both countries.
What’s going on between the U.S. and Venezuela?
The last three American presidents have been united on one policy: hitting the Venezuelan government with tough sanctions in response to corruption, anti-democratic moves and human rights abuses.
The United States and Venezuela have not had diplomatic relations since 2019.
But while President Donald J. Trump took a hard-line approach, the Biden administration tried a different tactic, meeting privately last year with Venezuelan government officials in Qatar, where they discussed lifting sanctions that had hobbled Venezuela’s vital oil industry.
Some experts said the Biden administration’s new strategy, which many had criticized as being too lenient, helped lay a foundation for the election and energized the opposition.
That, in part, helped spur talks between the Venezuelan government and the opposition that culminated in an agreement late last year meant to pave the way for free and fair elections — though since then the Maduro administration has taken various steps to undermine the vote.
An oil rig with a pool of oil in the foreground.
What leverage does the United States hold over Venezuela?
Using executive orders and a law called the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, the United States has imposed over 350 sanctions against Venezuela in the past seven years. Mr. Trump’s administration froze Venezuelan assets in the United States.
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged President Maduro with drug trafficking and offered a $15 million reward for information resulting in his arrest.
Did President Biden lift the sanctions?
Last October, the Venezuelan government and a group of opposition parties known as the Unitary Platform signed an agreement intended to institute democratic reforms and create a path for elections.
After that deal, the Biden administration removed a ban on secondary trading on some Venezuelan bonds and eased various sanctions on oil for six months. The administration had promised to release millions of dollars for humanitarian use if the government held up its end of the bargain.
But instead, the Venezuelan government prevented a top opposition leader, María Corina Machado, who has emerged as one of the country’s most popular figures, from running for president. Dozens of opposition activists have been harassed and detained.
In April, the Biden administration allowed the sanctions relief to expire, and millions of dollars have not been released.
A large group of people sitting under a tree.
What is the Venezuelan government’s response?
The Venezuelan government considers U.S. sanctions illegal and blames Washington for the country’s economic crisis and for the exodus of nearly eight million Venezuelans.
“Migration was promoted from Washington,” Venezuela’s foreign minister, Yván Gil Pinto, told The Intercept last month. “Those who created those conditions, they must assume their responsibility, the responsibility of hurting our economy, and of creating a migrant attraction towards the United States.’’
(U.S. data show that since 2021, more than 800,000 Venezuelan migrants entered the United States, including 114,695 in the first six months of this year.)
Mr. Gil also blamed what he called Venezuela’s “far right” opposition for conspiring with the United States and predicted that, as a result, voters would reject the opposition at the polls.
What will the U.S. do if Mr. Maduro tries to manipulate the election?
Two senior U.S. government officials, who spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters, said it was important to wait and see what happens before discussing any repercussions.
The international community should not render any judgment on the electoral process until there are results, one official said, noting that the administration was closely watching whether the Maduro government engages in any last-minute moves to undermine the democratic process.
The Biden administration is particularly concerned that the Maduro government could claim victory without verifiable results, the official said, adding that the governing party is aware that its political future is pegged to the legitimacy of the vote.
Another U.S. official said that if Mr. Maduro loses — and accepts the loss — there would probably be negotiations over a transition of power, but added that those conversations had yet to take place. Such talks could include issues like amnesties, guarantees for those leaving office and establishing truth commissions.
Edmundo González, the main opposition presidential candidate in Venezuela’s presidential election, sits in a chair.
What has the opposition said about U.S. relations?
Mr. González, the former longtime diplomat running for president, is eager to normalize diplomatic relations.
“I want Venezuela and the United States to recover and go back to the friendly or just natural relationship we’ve had for many years,” he said during a discussion on Thursday sponsored by the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan research center in Washington. “It’s absurd, if not unbelievable,” he added, the number of years that Venezuela has been “without a diplomatic office in Washington.”
Political dialogue and cooperation are a must, Mr. González said.
“That’s something that we have to tackle immediately,” he added.
Frances Robles is a Times investigative reporter covering the United States and Latin America. She has been a journalist for more than 30 years. More about Frances Robles
A version of this article appears in print on July 21, 2024, Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: The Biden Administration’s Push-and-Pull Role in the Venezuelan Election. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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|
Election 2024: Four Takeaways From Biden’s Post-Debate Interview.txt | By Shane Goldmacher
It was a high-stakes interview for Biden. How did he do?
President Biden standing onstage with a crowd of supporters behind him.
He downplayed. He denied. He dismissed.
President Biden’s first television interview since his poor debate performance last week was billed as a prime-time opportunity to reassure the American people that he still has what it takes to run for, win and hold the nation’s highest office.
But Mr. Biden, with more than a hint of hoarseness in his voice, spent much of the 22 minutes resisting a range of questions that George Stephanopoulos of ABC News had posed — about his competence, about taking a cognitive test, about his standing in the polls.
The president on Friday did not struggle to complete his thoughts the way he did at the debate. But at the same time he was not the smooth-talking senator of his youth, or even the same elder statesman whom the party entrusted four years ago to defeat former President Donald J. Trump.
Instead, it was a high-stakes interview with an 81-year-old president whose own party is increasingly doubting him yet who sounded little like a man with any doubts about himself.
Here are four takeaways:
Biden downplays the debate as a one-time flub.
The interview was Mr. Biden’s longest unscripted appearance in public since his faltering debate performance. The delay has had his allies on Capitol Hill and beyond confused about what was keeping the president cloistered behind closed doors — or depending upon teleprompters — for so long.
The eight-day lag has seen the first members of Congress call for him to step aside and donors demand that the party consider switching candidates. It also heightened the scrutiny of every word Mr. Biden said.
He was in a defensive posture throughout, arguing that his past performance should be proof enough about his capacity in the future.
“It was a bad episode,” the president said. “No indication of any serious condition.”
He blamed exhaustion but also being so sick ahead of the debate that his doctors tested him for Covid-19. But what he would not agree to was any kind of neurological examination.
“Look, I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day, I have that test,” Mr. Biden said, suggesting that the job of the presidency was its own type of test. He declined repeatedly to sit for an independent exam.
Mr. Biden’s challenge is that there is little he can say in a single interview to solve the fallout of a stumbling performance that tens of millions of Americans watched live.
George Stephanopoulos sits in a chair across from President Biden, who sits with his legs crossed and his hands folded on his lap.
Biden did better than the debate. But will that be enough?
Some of Mr. Biden’s answers were neither compelling nor cohesive.
He paused for multiple seconds early in the interview after Mr. Stephanopoulos asked what had gone wrong a week earlier.
“The whole way I prepared, nobody’s fault mine. Nobody’s fault but mine,” Mr. Biden eventually said. “I, uh, prepared what I usually would do, sitting down as I did, come back with foreign leaders or National Security Council for explicit detail. And I realized about partway through that, you know, I quoted The New York Times had me down 10 points before the debate, 9 now or whatever the hell it is. The fact of the matter is that what I looked at is that he also lied 28 times. I couldn’t, I mean, the way the debate ran, not — my fault, no one else’s fault — no one else’s fault.”
The answer was meandering and circular, even if it was not as bad as his worst moments at the debate in Atlanta. But it was hardly a crisp and concise reassurance for members of his party squinting to imagine what a second debate with Mr. Trump might look like in September.
Mr. Biden did make some arguments against Mr. Trump and for himself.
But on the central question at hand — his debate performance and what it projected about the future — Mr. Biden did not have much more to say, other than a brief aside that Mr. Trump was “still shouting” even after his microphone had been turned off and that he had let it distract him.
“I just had a bad night” was about the totality of Mr. Biden’s explanation. “I don’t know why.”
The interview was just the first, and far from the last, of tests.
The reality that some of the president’s allies have come to accept is that nearly every Biden interview, public appearance or utterance for the foreseeable future is going to come under a harsh new spotlight.
Roughly three-quarters of voters now see Mr. Biden as too old to be an effective president, according to a post-debate poll by The New York Times and Siena College.
Mr. Biden, though, is a believer in his own story as a man who takes on adversity — “America’s comeback kid,” Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey called him at a fund-raiser two days after the debate.
Mr. Biden and people close to him still hold a chip on their shoulders about how he won the 2020 presidential nomination after months of being written off.
“Look, I remember them telling me the same thing in 2020,” he said, quoting his critics. “‘I can’t win. The polls show I can’t win.’”
Four years ago, the Democratic Party did rally behind Mr. Biden with remarkable speed when he appeared the strongest candidate to take on Mr. Trump. But polling today paints a murkier picture on that critical question.
What was clear is that Mr. Biden is already thinking about himself in the pantheon of past presidents. He cited the opinion of an unnamed group of economists and foreign policy experts to render this flattering judgment:
“If I stop now, I’d go down in history as a pretty successful president.”
Biden isn’t going anywhere without the ‘Lord Almighty’ intervening.
Mr. Biden set an awfully high bar for what it would take for him to step aside.
“If the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that,” he said.
Mr. Biden repeatedly waved off polling that Mr. Stephanopoulos cited to show Mr. Biden’s weakness, including a 36 percent approval rating. “That’s not what our polls show,” Mr. Biden snapped. He said “all the pollsters” whom he speaks with tell him the race is a “tossup.”
It was not the words of a man ready to exit the stage.
As Mr. Biden said earlier in the day at a rally in Madison, Wis., “They’re trying to push me out of the race. Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race.”
When Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed him about the burbling discontent among Democratic elected officials, Mr. Biden shrugged it off. “I’ve seen it from the press,” he said.
Perhaps the most revealing answer came when Mr. Biden was asked about how he would feel if Mr. Trump were being sworn in as president in January.
“I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Mr. Biden said. (The original ABC transcript rendered the quote as “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”)
Of course, for a Democratic Party warning that Mr. Trump is an existential threat to the nation, the race is about something much simpler: winning.
The Times revised Mr. Biden’s quote in this article about how he would feel if he loses the election after White House officials and several news organizations contacted ABC on Friday about whether Mr. Biden had said “goodest” or “good as.” ABC’s standards team listened again to the audio and made the change. Mr. Biden’s actual words at that point in the interview were difficult to make out and open to interpretation.
Chris Cameron
July 5, 2024, 11:55 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 11:55 p.m. ET
Chris Cameron
Reporting from Washington
Interview appears to change few Democratic officials’ views on Biden.
President Biden walks up stairs leading into Air Force One.
President Biden had planned to use his first televised interview since his poor debate performance to reassure supporters and quiet the voices within the Democratic Party calling for him to drop out.
But many Democrats who spoke out after the interview, which aired on ABC News on Friday night, signaled that it had done little to shift their stances, regardless of whether they thought Mr. Biden should remain in the race or drop out.
A handful of current and former Democratic officials who had called on Mr. Biden to end his re-election campaign said the interview had done little, or even nothing, to address their concerns. Reliable supporters of the president’s re-election campaign similarly fanned out to television networks, declaring once more that they were sticking with Mr. Biden.
Other Democrats who had raised concerns about the president’s performance, but had not gone as far as to call for Mr. Biden to drop out, said the interview did not significantly change their views of his candidacy.
The president’s critics among the Democrats, including those asking him to step aside, said Mr. Biden appeared to be out of touch or in denial about his prospects for re-election.
Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who was the first House Democrat to call for President Biden to drop out of the race, said in an interview on CNN shortly after the ABC broadcast that “the need for him to step aside is more urgent tonight than when I first called for it on Tuesday.” He added that Mr. Biden “does not want his legacy to be that he’s the one who turned over our country to a tyrant.”
Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, also said Mr. Biden should step aside, telling CNN that he found points in the interview “disturbing” and that it was clear “the president of the United States doesn’t have the vigor necessary to overcome the deficit here.”
“He felt as long as he gave it his best effort, that’s all that really matters,” Mr. Quigley said, recounting Mr. Biden’s description of how he would feel if he lost to former President Donald J. Trump. “With the greatest respect: No.”
A handful of Democratic lawmakers who have consistently supported Mr. Biden said soon after the interview that they would stick with the president. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a chair of the Biden campaign, and Representative Robert Garcia of California said they were ready to help the president win re-election in November.
Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has repeatedly sought to rally Democrats behind the president with expletive-laden posts on social media, said, “Democrats need to get a spine or grow a set — one or the other,” adding, “Joe Biden is our guy.”
Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, a longtime ally of Mr. Biden, said on social media on Friday night that “Joe Biden is who our country needs.”
And Representative Nanette Barragán, Democrat of California and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who had backed Mr. Biden, told CNN earlier on Friday that Democrats “shouldn’t be talking about” replacing him. Later in the evening, Ms. Barragán continued to defend Mr. Biden.
“Sounds like everyone is looking for concerns — I don’t see them,” she said. “He’s quick to respond. He’s on point. He clearly understands the questions and the topics and responds accordingly. It’s a tough interview, and I think he handled it well.”
Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California and a Biden surrogate, said in a statement that he expected more from Mr. Biden to earn the trust of voters — and “that requires more than one interview.”
“I expect complete transparency from the White House about this issue,” Mr. Khanna said, “and a willingness to answer many legitimate questions from the media and voters about his capabilities.”
Julián Castro, the former Democratic presidential candidate who has called for Mr. Biden to drop out, criticized the president after the interview, telling MSNBC that Mr. Biden had been “steadier” in the interview but was in “denial about the decline that people can clearly see.”
Former Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, who also has said that Mr. Biden should step aside, said after the interview, “I don’t think he moved the needle at all.”
“I don’t think he energized anybody,” Mr. Ryan said on MSNBC. “I think there was a level of him being out of touch with reality on the ground.”
“I’m worried,” he continued, with a nervous chuckle. “I’m worried, like, I think a lot of people are, that he is just not the person to be able to get this done for us.”
Mark Buell, a prominent donor for Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party who had raised questions about the president’s performance at the debate, said in a text message that “Biden is on a slide that he is trying to curb. If he isn’t successful, he may soon become a verb.”
Maya C. Miller, Robert Jimison and Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting from Washington. Simon J. Levien contributed reporting from Massachusetts.
Robert Jimison
July 5, 2024, 11:05 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 11:05 p.m. ET
Robert Jimison
Representative James E. Clyburn, a Biden campaign co-chair, voiced support for the president late Friday evening. “Joe Biden is who our country needs, and his presidency has laid a foundation upon which we can continue our pursuit of a more perfect union,” he said in a social media post.
Robert Jimison
July 5, 2024, 11:05 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 11:05 p.m. ET
Robert Jimison
Clyburn's endorsement four years ago is often credited with helping Biden win his first term. He caused a lot of handwringing among Democrats earlier this week when he discussed the possibility of a “mini-primary“ to replace Biden before the Democratic National Convention in August.
Michael M. Grynbaum
July 5, 2024, 10:39 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 10:39 p.m. ET
Michael M. Grynbaum
Michael Grynbaum covers the intersection of media and politics.
Media Memo
Respectfully but firmly, Stephanopoulos pressed Biden on his fitness for a second term.
It was, in the end, an interview as personal as it was political, a cross-examination more focused on the psyche and the inescapable reality of aging than on any points of policy or governance.
Respectfully but firmly, the ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos on Friday pressed President Biden, again and again, on the basic questions that Americans had asked themselves over the past eight days, since 51 million people saw a diminished Mr. Biden struggle to perform on the debate stage.
“Are you more frail?”
“Have there been more lapses?”
“Have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination?”
And as Mr. Biden dismissed all those concerns one by one — flicking away the cascading worries about his health, his electability, his capacity to serve in his office for four additional years — Mr. Stephanopoulos zeroed in on the matters of pride, dignity and self-worth swirling beneath the surface.
“Are you sure,” the anchor asked, “you’re being honest with yourself?”
At 81, Mr. Biden is 18 years older than his interlocutor. The president arrived at the ABC interview on Friday tanned and tieless, his top two shirt buttons undone, making every effort to project youth and vitality. Yet a viewer could not help but imagine the mop-haired Mr. Stephanopoulos in the role of an adult son, guiding an elderly parent toward a conclusion that may be difficult, and deeply painful, to accept.
It is too soon to say if their 22-minute encounter on Friday, taped in the library of a Wisconsin middle school and broadcast by ABC in prime time, will count among the most consequential interviews in presidential history. But it carried some of the highest stakes.
Democrats’ confidence in Mr. Biden’s ability to defeat his Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, plummeted in the aftermath of last week’s debate. The president’s soft voice, extended pauses and slurred words — once viewed by supporters as an unsettling, if benign, fact of his public appearances — had taken on far darker implications.
Mr. Biden evinced many of those traits again on Friday, his voice turning hoarse and hesitant at times. His answers occasionally meandered. He was much improved from the shaky president who stood across from Mr. Trump last Thursday, but neither was he in the fighting form of his 2020 debates.
When Mr. Stephanopoulos jumped straight to the point — “You and your team have said you had a bad night” — Mr. Biden bared his teeth in a smile.
“Sure did,” he replied, equal parts humility and nonchalance. Hey. It happens.
But then the anchor began to press. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker and an ally of the president, wondered if Mr. Biden had more serious health issues. Mr. Biden blamed jet lag, but he had been back from Europe for more than a week. Did he realize, onstage, how badly he was doing?
The president, who has interacted with Mr. Stephanopoulos for decades, including when the anchor served in the Clinton White House, tried to parry with some humor. “You’ve had some bad interviews once in a while,” he teased.
“I’ve had plenty,” Mr. Stephanopoulos replied. But, he pointed out, millions of people watched a debate that seemed to confirm fears about the president’s age.
When Mr. Biden blamed the press for amplifying the concerns of Democratic leaders, the anchor said he had heard from dozens of supporters who “want you to go with grace.” And when Mr. Biden tried to deflect by ticking off achievements of his administration, Mr. Stephanopoulos countered, “What has all that work over the last three and a half years cost you physically, mentally, emotionally?”
As the interview neared its end, Mr. Stephanopoulos pivoted back to realpolitik. “If you stay in, and Trump is elected, and everything you’re warning about comes to pass,” he asked, “how will you feel in January?”
“I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Mr. Biden said. (The original ABC transcript rendered the quote as “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”)
At one point, Mr. Stephanopoulos posed a series of scenarios to Mr. Biden, about how he would react if top Democratic leaders called on him to withdraw. The president smiled and laughed.
“I mean, these hypotheticals, George,” he began.
The anchor interjected.
“It’s not that hypothetical anymore.”
The Times revised Mr. Biden’s quote in this article about how he would feel if he loses the election after White House officials and several news organizations contacted ABC on Friday about whether Mr. Biden had said “goodest” or “good as.” ABC’s standards team listened again to the audio and made the change. Mr. Biden’s actual words at that point in the interview were difficult to make out and open to interpretation.
The New York Times
July 5, 2024, 10:32 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 10:32 p.m. ET
The New York Times
Here is the full transcript of the president’s ABC News interview.
George Stephanopoulos, left, and President Biden facing each other and sitting in chairs.
ABC News taped its interview with President Biden on Friday afternoon and aired it at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Following is ABC’s official transcript of the interview, which lasted about 20 minutes, between George Stephanopoulos and the president.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. President, thank you for doing this.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Thank you for having me.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s start with the debate. eh, You and your team said, have said you had a bad night. But your —
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Sure did.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But your friend Nancy Pelosi actually framed the question that I think is on the minds of millions of Americans. Was this a bad episode or the sign of a more serious condition?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: It was a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing and — and a bad night.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, you say you were exhausted. And — and I know you’ve said that before as well, but you came — and you did have a tough month. But you came home from Europe about 11 or 12 days before the debate, spent six days in Camp David. Why wasn’t that enough rest time, enough recovery time?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Because I was sick. I was feeling terrible. Matter of fact, the docs with me. I asked if they did a COVID test because they’re trying to figure out what was wrong. They did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, you know, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And — did you ever watch the debate afterwards?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I don’t think I did, no.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, what I’m try — what I want to get at is, what were you experiencing as you were going through the debate? Did you know how badly it was going?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Yeah, look. The whole way I prepared, nobody’s fault, mine. Nobody’s fault but mine. I, uh — I prepared what I usually would do sittin’ down as I did come back with foreign leaders or National Security Council for explicit detail. And I realized — bout partway through that, you know, all — I get quoted the New York Times had me down, at ten points before the debate, nine now, or whatever the hell it is. The fact of the matter is, what I looked at is that he also lied 28 times. I couldn’t — I mean, the way the debate ran, not — my fault, no one else’s fault, no one else’s fault.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But it seemed like you were having trouble from the first question in, even before he spoke.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, I just had a bad night. You’ve had some bad interviews once in a while. I — I can’t remember any, but I’m sure you did.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I’ve had plenty. I guess the question of — the problem is here for a lot of Americans watching is, you’ve said going back to 2020, “Watch me,” to people who are concerned about your age. And, you know, 50 million Americans watched that debate. It seemed to confirm fears they already had.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, look. After that debate, I did ten major events in a row, including until 2:00 in the morning after the debate. I did events in North Carolina. I did events in — in in Georgia, did events like this today, large crowds, overwhelming response, no — no — no slipping. And so, I just had a bad night. I don’t know why.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And — how — how quickly did it — did it come to you that you were having that bad night?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, it came to me I was havin’ a bad night when I realized that even when I was answering a question, even though they turned his mic off, he was still shouting. And I— I let it distract me. I— I’m not blaming it on that, but I realized that I just wasn’t in control.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Part of the other concern is that — this seems to fit into a pattern of decline that has been reported on recently. New York Times had a headline on July 2nd, “Biden’s lapses are said to be increasingly common and worrisome.” Here’s what they wrote.
“People who’ve spent time with President Biden over the last few months or so said the lapses appear to have grown more frequent, more pronounced, and after Thursday d— Thursday’s debate, more worrisome. By many accounts, as evidenced by video footage, observation, and interviews, Mr. Biden is not the same today as he was even when he took office three-and-a-half years ago.” Similar reporting in The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Are you the same man today that you were when you took office three-and-a-half years ago?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: In terms of successes, yes. I also was the guy who put together a peace plan for the Middle East that may be comin’ to fruition. I was also the guy that expanded NATO. I was also the guy that grew the economy. All the individual things that were done were ideas I had or I fulfilled. I moved on.
And so, for example, you know, “We-Well, that was true then, what’s Biden done lately?” Di-you-just just see today, just announced 200,000 new jobs. We’re movin’ in the direction that no one’s ever taken on. I know you know this from days in — in — in the — in the government.
I took on big pharma. I beat them. No one said I could beat them. I took on all the things we said we got done, were told we couldn’t get done. And part of it is what I said when I ran was I wanted to do three things: Restore some decency to the office, restore some support for the middle class instead of trickle down economics both from the middle out and the bottom up the way the wealthy still do fine, everyone does better, and unite the country.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But what has all that work over the last three-and-a-half years cost you physically, mentally, emotionally?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, I— I— I just think it cost me a really bad night, bad run, but, you know, I— George. I have— I’m optimistic about this country. I don’t think we’re a country of losers that he points out. I don’t think America’s in tough shape. I think America is on the cusp of breaking through in so many incredible opportunities.
In this next term, I’m gonna make sure we gotta — straighten out the tax system. I’m gonna make sure we’re in a situation where we have healthcare for all people, where we’re in a position where we have — have childcare and eldercare, free up — and all these things.
One thing I’m proudest of is, remember when my economic plan was put forward? A lot of the mainstream economists said, “This is not gonna work.” Guess what? We now have 16 Nobel laureates, 16 of ‘em in economics saying that “Biden’s next term would be a sig— enor— based on what he wants to do, enormous success.” Trump’s plan would cause a recession and signif— gi— increase inflation. I’ve made great progress, and that’s what I plan on doin’. And we can do this.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I — I— I understand that, and I’m not disputing that. What I’m asking you is — about your personal situation. Do you dispute that there have been more lapses, especially in the last several months?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Can I run the 100 in 10 flat? No. But I’m still in good shape.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you more frail?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: No.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Come keep my schedule. (LAUGH)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you spoke with your doctor after the debate. What did he say?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: He said he — just looked at me and said, “You’re exhausted.” That’s it. I have medical doctors travel with me everywhere. Every President does, as you know. Medical doctors, some of the best in the world travel with me everywhere I go. I have an ongoing assessment of what I’m doin’, and they don’t hesitate to tell me if they think there’s something wrong.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you said you have an ongoing assessment. Have you had a full neurological and cognitive evaluation?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I’ve had — I get a full neurological test everyday with me. And I’ve had a full physical. I had, you know, I mean, I— I’ve been at Walter Reed for my physicals. I mean — uhm yes, the answer.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I— I know your doctor said he consulted with a neurologist. I— I guess I’m asking — a slightly different question. Have you had the specific cognitive tests, and have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: No. No one said I had to. No one said. They said I’m good.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Would you be willing to undergo an independent medical evaluation that included neurological and cognit— cognitive tests and release the results to the American people?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Look. I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world. Not — and that’s not hi — sounds like hyperbole, but we are the essential nation of the world ...
Madeleine Albright was right. And every single day, for example, today before I came out here, I’m on the phone with — with the prime minister of— well, anyway, I shouldn’t get into detail, but with Netanyahu. I’m on the phone with the new prime minister of England.
I’m workin’ on what we were doin’ with regard to — in Europe with regard to expansion of NATO and whether it’s gonna stick. I’m takin’ on Putin. I mean, every day there’s no day I go through there not those decisions I have to make every single day.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And you have been doing that and the American people have been watching, yet their concerns about your age and your health are growing. So that’s why I’m asking — to reassure them, would you be willing to have the independent medical evaluation?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Watch me between — there’s a lotta time left in this campaign. There’s over 125 days.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So the answer —
PRESIDENT BIDEN: They’ll make a decision.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Right — the answer right now is, no, you — you don’t want to do that right now.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, I’ve already done it.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You talked a lot about your successes in — at the beginning of this interview. And — and I don’t want to dispute that, I don’t want to debate that. But — as you know, elections are about the future, not the past. They’re about tomorrow, not yesterday. And the question on so many people’s minds right now is, “Can you serve effectively for the next four years?”
PRESIDENT BIDEN: George. I’m the guy that put NATO together, the future. No one thought I could expand it. I’m the guy that shut Putin down. No one thought could happen. I’m the guy that put together a South Pacific initiative with AUKUS. I’m the guy that got 50 nations out — not only in Europe, outside of Europe as well to help Ukraine.
I’m the guy that got Japanese to expand their budget. I’m the — so I mean, these — and, for example, when I decided we used to have 40% of computer chips. We invented the chip, the little chip, the computer chip. It’s in everything from cell phone to weapons.
And so, we used to have 40%, and we’re down to virtually nothing. So I get in the plane, against the advice of everybody, and I fly to South Korea. I convince them to invest in the United States billions of dollars. Now we have tens of billions of dollars being invested in the United States making us back in a position we’re gonna own that industry again. We have, I mean, I— I just — anyway. I’m — I don’t wanna take too much credit. I have a great staff.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But hold on. My— I guess my point is, all that takes a toll. Do you have the mental and physical capacity to do it for another four years?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I believes so, I wouldn’t be runnin’ if I didn’t think I did. Look, I’m runnin’ again because I think I understand best what has to be done to take this nation to a completely new new level. We’re on our way. We’re on our way. And, look. The decision recently made by the Supreme Court on immunity, you know, the next President of the United States, it’s not just about whether he or she knows what they’re doin’.
It’s — it’s — it’s not — not about a con — a conglomerate of people making decisions. It’s about the character of the President. The character of the President’s gonna determine whether or not this Constitution is employed the right way.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you a tougher, more personal question. Are you sure you’re being honest with yourself when you say you have the mental and physical capacity to serve another four years?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Yes, I am, because, George, the last thing I want to do is not be able to meet that. I think, as some of senior economist and senior foreign policy specialists say, if I stop now, I’d go down in history as a pretty successful President. No one thought I could get done what we got done.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But are you being with honest — with yourself as well about your ability to defeat Donald Trump right now?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You say that, and let me challenge you.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Sure.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Because you were close but behind going into the debate. You’re further behind now by— by any measure. It’s been a two-man race for several months. Inflation has come down. In those last few months, he’s become a convicted felon. Yet, you’re still falling further behind.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: You guys keep saying that. George, do you— look, you know polling better than anybody. Do you think polling data as accurate as it used to be?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I don’t think so, but I think when you look at all the polling data right now, it shows that he’s certainly ahead in the popular vote, probably even more ahead in the battleground states. And one of the other key factors there is, it shows that in many of the battleground states, the Democrats who are running for Senate and the House are doing better than you are.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: That’s not unusual in some states. I carried an awful lotta Democrats last time I ran in 2020. Look, I remember them tellin’ me the same thing in 2020. “I can’t win. The polls show I can’t win.” Remember 2024 — 2020, the red wave was coming.
Before the vote, I said, “That’s not gonna happen. We’re gonna win.” We did better in an off-year than almost any incumbent President ever has done. They said in 2023, (STATIC) all the tough (UNINTEL) we’re not gonna win. I went into all those areas and all those — all those districts, and we won.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: All that is true, but 2020 was a close race. And your approval rating has dropped significantly since then. I think the last poll I saw was at about 36%.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Woah, woah, woah
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: The number of Americans who think you’re too old to serve has doubled since 2020. Wouldn’t a clear-eyed political calculus tell you that it’s gonna be much tougher to win in 2024?.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Not when you’re running against a pathological liar. Not when he hadn’t been challenged in a way that he’s about to be challenged. Not when people —
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve had months to challenge him.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Oh, sure, I had months, but I was also doin’ a hell of a lot of other things, like wars around the world, like keeping NATO together, like working — anyway. But look.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you really believe you’re not behind right now?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I think it’s in — all the pollsters I talk to tell me it’s a tossup. It’s a tossup. And when I’m behind, there’s only one poll I’m really far behind, CBS Poll and NBC, I mean, excuse me. And — uh —
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: New York— New York Times and NBC both have — have you about six points behind in the popular vote.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: That’s exactly right. New York Times had me behind before, anything having to do with this race — had me hind — behind ten points. Ten points they had me behind. Nothing’s changed substantially since the debate in the New York Times poll.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Just when you look at the reality, though, Mr. President, I mean, you won the popular vote — in — in 2020, but it was still deadly close in the electoral college —
PRESIDENT BIDEN: By 7 million votes.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes. But you’re behind now in the popular vote.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I don’t— I don’t buy that.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it worth the risk?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be President or win this race than me.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, the heart of your case against Donald Trump is that he’s only out for himself, putting his personal interests ahead of the national interest. How do you respond to critics who say that by staying in the race, you’re doing the same thing?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Oh, come on. Well, I don’t think those critics know what they’re talkin’ about.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: They’re just wrong?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: They’re just wrong. Look, Trump is a pathological liar. Trump is— he is— you ever seen anything Trump did that benefited sa— somebody else and not him? You can’t answer, I know.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I’ve— I’ve questioned him and his allies as persistently as any journalist has.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Oh, I know you have. I’m not being critical. I’m not being critical, but look, I mean, the man is a congenital liar. As I said, they pointed out in that debate, he lied 27— 28 times— times, whatever number, over 20 times. Talk about how good his economy was, how he brought down inflation, how— this is a guy who unlike— only other President oth— other than him is Hoover who lost more jobs than he created.
This is a guy who told us to put bleach in our arms to deal with COVID, with a million— over a million people died. This is a guy who talks about wantin’ to get rid of the healthcare provision we put in place. This is a guy who wants to give the power back to big pharma to be able to charge exorbitant prices for drugs. This is a guy who wants to undo every single thing I’ve done, every single— every single thing.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I understand that. I understand that’s why you want to stay in the race, but have you convinced yourself that only you can defeat him?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I convinced myself of two things. I’m the most qualified person to beat him, and I know how to get things done.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: If you can be convinced that you cannot defeat Donald Trump, will you stand down?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: (LAUGH)- It depends on— on if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, if — I mean, on a more practical level, The Washington Post just reported in the last hour that Senator Mark Warner is — is assembling a group of Senators together to try and convince you to stand down, because they don’t think you can win.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, Mark is a good man. We’ve never had (UNINTEL). He also tried to get the nomination too. Mark’s not — Mark and I have a different perspective. I respect him.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And if Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi come down and say, “We’re worried that if you stay in the race, we’re gonna lose the House and the Senate,” how will you respond?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I— I’d go into detail with them. I’ve speaken (PH) to all of them in detail including Jim Clyburn, every one of ‘em. They all said I should stay in the race — stay in the race. No one said — none of the people said I should leave.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But if they do?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, it’s, like, (LAUGH) they’re not gonna do that.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You’re sure?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, Yeah, I’m sure. Look. I mean, if the Lord Almighty came down and said, “Joe, get outta the race,” I’d get outta the race. The Lord Almighty’s not comin’ down. I mean, these hypotheticals, George, if, I mean, it’s all —
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But — but it’s — it’s — it’s not that hypothetical anymore. I — I — I — I grant that the — they have not k— requested a meeting, but it’s been reported —
PRESIDENT BIDEN: But they — I met with them. I met with a lotta these people. I talk with them regularly. I had an hour conversation with Hakeem. I had more time (UNITEL)with Jim Clyburn. I spent time with many hours off and on in the last little bit with Chuck Schumer. It’s not like— I had all the governors — all the governors.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I agree that the Lord Almighty’s not gonna come down, but if — if — if you are told reliably from your allies, from your friends and supporters in the Democratic Party in the House and the Senate that they’re concerned you’re gonna lose the House and the Senate if you stay in, what will you do?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I’m not gonna answer that question. It’s not gonna happen.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: What’s your plan to turn the campaign around?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: You saw it today. How many — how many people draw crowds like I did today? Find me more enthusiastic than today? Huh?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I mean, have — I don’t think you wanna play the crowd game. Donald Trump can draw big crowds. There’s no question about that.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: He can draw a big crowd, but what does he say? Who — who does he have? I’m the guy supposedly in trouble. We raised $38 million within four days after this. Over — we have over a million individual contributors, individual contributors. That — that’s less than 200 bucks. We have — I mean, I’m not seen what you’re — you’re proposing.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You haven’t seen the — the fall-off in the polls? You haven’t seen the reports of discontent in the Democratic Party, House Democrats, Senate Democrats?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I’ve seen it from the press.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, I’ve heard from dozens of your supporters over the last few days, and a variety of views, I grant you that. But the prevailing sentiment is this. They love you, and they will be forever grateful to you for defeating Donald Trump in 2020.
They think you’ve done a great job as President, a lot of the successes you outlined. But they are worried about you and the country. And they don’t think you can win. They want you to go with grace, and they will cheer you if you do. What do you say to that?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I say the vast majority are not where that — those folks are. I don’t doubt there are some folks there. Have you ever seen a group — ta— time when elected officials running for office aren’t little worried? Have you ever seen that? I’ve not. Same thing happened in 2020. “Oh, Biden, I don’t know. Man, what’s he gonna do? He may bring me down, he may (PH).”
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. President, I’ve never seen a President 36% approval get reelected.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, I don’t believe that’s my approval rating. That’s not what our polls show.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And if you stay in and Trump is elected and everything you’re warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in January?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about. Look, George. Think of it this way. You’ve heard me say this before. I think the United States and the world is at an inflection point when the things that happen in the next several years are gonna determine what the next six, seven decades are gonna be like.
And who’s gonna be able to hold NATO together like me? Who’s gonna be able to be in a position where I’m able to keep the Pacific Basin in a position where we’re — we’re at least checkmating China now? Who’s gonna — who’s gonna do that? Who has that reach? Who has — who knows all these pe…? We’re gonna have, I guess a good way to judge me, is you’re gonna have now the NATO conference here in the United States next week. Come listen. See what they say.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. President, thanks for your time.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Thank you. Appreciate it.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
July 5, 2024, 10:29 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 10:29 p.m. ET
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Biden says he has not had a cognitive test and doesn’t need one.
President Biden said in an interview on Friday that he has not undergone a cognitive exam, but argued that his record as president should be proof enough that he is mentally fit to lead the nation.
He was repeatedly pressed about his cognitive abilities in his first major interview since his disastrous debate performance set off calls for him to drop out of the race. George Stephanopoulos of ABC News asked him pointedly if he would be willing to undergo a neurological and cognitive test.
“I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world,” Mr. Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
The line of questioning came after Mr. Biden was criticized for his debate performance that was often meandering and during which he was faltering in his speech. Several current and former officials have also expressed concern that moments in which Mr. Biden appears confused or listless have become more frequent.
The White House has said Mr. Biden was suffering from a cold on the night of the debate. Mr. Biden has blamed himself and his travel schedule ahead of the debate. But an increasing number of Democrats and voters have expressed concern over whether Mr. Biden has the mental acuity to not only beat Mr. Trump, but to serve for another four years.
“Have you had the specific cognitive tests, and have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination?” Mr. Stephanopoulos asked Mr. Biden.
“No. No one said I had to,” Mr. Biden said. “They said I’m good.”
Mr. Biden added that like every president, a White House doctor does travel with him. His doctor, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said Mr. Biden was “fit for duty” after undergoing a physical earlier this year, adding that he had undergone an “extremely detailed” neurological exam that did not turn up evidence of stroke, neurological disorders or Parkinson’s disease.
After the debate, Mr. Biden said his doctor looked at him and said, “you’re exhausted.”
Mr. Biden also did not commit to taking a cognitive test in the future to assure voters. Instead, he issued a challenge to those concerned about his mental state. “Watch me.”
“There’s a lot of time left in this campaign,” Mr. Biden said.
Jack Healy
July 5, 2024, 10:12 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 10:12 p.m. ET
Jack Healy
Loyal Democratic voters react with relief, and despair.
At least it wasn’t as bad as the debate.
That was the verdict from some devoted Democratic voters who nervously tuned in to watch President Biden’s interview with ABC News on Friday. They were anxious to see the president respond to concerns about his age and cognitive abilities, and show wavering voters that he could serve another four years.
“I think he showed in this interview he’s cognitively there,” said Jayden D’Onofrio, 19, chairman of the Florida Future Leaders PAC, which represents high-school and college Democrats in the state. “He was very straightforward about the fact that, yes, he is older. We have to recognize that.”
But John Avalos, a progressive Democrat and former member of the San Francisco board of supervisors, said the interview made him weep. He was frustrated that Mr. Biden would not submit to a cognitive test, and said Mr. Biden’s doubling down on his refusal to leave the race could spell electoral doom for Democrats.
“Biden is not demonstrating the traits that generate much confidence,” Mr. Avalos said. “There are 300 million people who rely on his cognitive abilities, and he’s unwilling to take a test because of his pride?”
Other Democratic voters said they thought Mr. Biden made clearer and more cogent arguments against former President Donald J. Trump than he had during the debate last week, and said Mr. Biden seemed more at ease.
“I tell you, he looked a whole lot better than the debate,” said William Davis, a precinct delegate in Detroit and retired water treatment plant worker. “I think he did well. I’m a little nervous that he’s not going to be able to keep it up.”
Mr. Davis said he was still unsure whether the president should stay in the race, despite Mr. Biden’s insistence on Friday that only the “Lord almighty” would cause him to leave the campaign.
“I’m 67,” Mr. Davis said. “I’m not the same person I was two years ago. I’m confident in him, but — and there is that but — he should think about the country and the world. I think another Democrat could come in and beat Trump.”
In Nebraska, Mo Neal, 73, who runs a social media page for Lancaster County Democrats, said that Mr. Biden seemed “gentlemanly and sedate” and that his demeanor compared favorably with Mr. Trump’s angry hectoring speeches.
“I’m solidly behind Biden,” she said. “Even now.”
Jazmine Ulloa
July 5, 2024, 10:09 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 10:09 p.m. ET
Jazmine Ulloa
Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on stage at the Essence Festival concert in New Orleans on Friday night. “Let us always celebrate the diversity, the depth and the beauty of our culture,” she said as the audience broke into cheers. She arrived at Caesars Superdome as Busta Rhymes was performing. No word from her team on whether she has watched the Biden interview.
Robert Jimison
July 5, 2024, 9:54 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:54 p.m. ET
Robert Jimison
Normally after the president has a big interview or speech, a flood of Democrats in Congress would be posting messages of support and sending out waves of fund-raising emails. Tonight, so far, only three have expressed full-throated support of Biden: Senators Chris Coons of Delaware and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Representative Robert Garcia of California. Two of them are official members of the Biden re-election campaign.
Simon Levien
July 5, 2024, 9:49 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:49 p.m. ET
Simon Levien
Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania and a staunch supporter of President Biden's, wrote on X that Democrats ought to rally around the president. “Democrats need to get a spine or grow a set — one or the other,” he said. “Joe Biden is our guy.”
Robert Jimison
July 5, 2024, 9:45 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:45 p.m. ET
Robert Jimison
Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware and a chair of the Biden campaign, continued to voice support for Biden's re-election bid. “President Biden has delivered remarkable progress for the American people, and he has plans to do even more in his next term," Coons wrote in a social media post. “I can’t wait to help him continue to take the fight to Trump and win in November.”
Robert Jimison
July 5, 2024, 9:43 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:43 p.m. ET
Robert Jimison
Representative Robert Garcia, Democrat of California and a Biden campaign surrogate, says he will continue to back the president’s re-election bid. “I’m proud to stand with the most progressive and productive President of the modern era,” Garcia wrote on social media.
Jack Healy
July 5, 2024, 9:40 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:40 p.m. ET
Jack Healy
A few loyal Democrats who nervously tuned in to Biden's interview with ABC News tonight had mixed reviews. John Avalos, a progressive Democrat in San Francisco and a former member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, said, “This interview made me weep,” adding, “Biden appears a man alone.” But in Detroit, William Davis, a retiree and a Democratic precinct delegate, said of Biden: “He looked a whole lot better than the debate.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
July 5, 2024, 9:37 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:37 p.m. ET
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Representative Nanette Barragán, Democrat of California and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, tells me that she believes Biden performed well tonight. “Sounds like everyone is looking for concerns,” she said. “I don’t see them. He’s quick to respond. He’s on point. He clearly understands the questions and the topics and responds accordingly.”
David E. Sanger
July 5, 2024, 9:33 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:33 p.m. ET
David E. Sanger
Biden urges Americans to watch him at a NATO summit next week in Washington.
President Biden walking away from a lectern and waving with an American flag behind him.
At the end of his interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC on Friday, President Biden suggested that Americans and others around the world watch him next week in his element: herding allies against Russia.
“I guess a good way to judge me is you're going to have now the NATO conference here in the United States next week,” Mr. Biden said.
“Come listen. See what they say,” he added, apparently referring to leaders of America’s allies.
It was a striking conclusion to the interview, because it went to the heart of what Mr. Biden believes may be his biggest legacy — and the institution most at risk if former president Donald J. Trump is elected. So while most Americans may not be focused on what is happening in Washington starting next Tuesday, Mr. Biden is.
The NATO session has been planned for more than a year, a celebration of the alliance’s founding 75 years ago. And it will open on Tuesday night with Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, welcoming the leaders of the other members of the alliance — now including Finland and Sweden, the two most recently admitted — to the Mellon Auditorium in downtown Washington, where the NATO treaty was first signed, when Mr. Biden was six years old.
The events, including a dinner for NATO leaders on Wednesday night at the White House, look like they will extend well beyond 8 p.m. — the cutoff time after which, Mr. Biden indicated a few days ago, he would be wise to avoid events. And on Thursday he plans to give a full news conference, officials say, to mark the end of the summit — one at which he will doubtless be peppered with questions about whether his debate performance, or other examples of cognitive lapses, suggest he should abandon a second run.
Mr. Biden will not be the only leader at the summit under deep pressure. President Emmanuel Macron of France recently suffered a stunning setback at the polls that weaken him. The summit will be a first for Keir Starmer, newly installed as the prime minister of Britain. And of course, Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, facing a deeper threat from invading Russian forces than ever.
But for the American president, it may well pose a particularly intense test. He will have to show, to world leaders and to the American public, that he can navigate the complex politics of maintaining support for Ukraine, juggle the issues and egos of three dozen presidents and prime ministers, and pull off a news conference that could well be the most challenging of his presidency. All with the world weighing his every phrase.
Katie Rogers
July 5, 2024, 9:27 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:27 p.m. ET
Katie Rogers
The outside world will discuss this interview, but within Biden’s circle, the appearance is seen as enough to keep him in the fight for now, according to those inside it who watched it and knew he had limited time to make a case. It is described as a modest turn in his direction with more to do.
Chris Cameron
July 5, 2024, 9:26 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:26 p.m. ET
Chris Cameron
Julián Castro, the onetime Democratic presidential candidate who previously called for Biden to drop out of the race, escalated his criticism of the president after the ABC interview, telling MSNBC that Biden was in “denial about the decline that people can clearly see.” Castro added, “What people want is to have confidence that whoever Democrats put up can win this election.”
Chris Cameron
July 5, 2024, 9:13 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:13 p.m. ET
Chris Cameron
Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who was the first House Democrat to call for Biden to drop out of the race, said of the president after the ABC News interview: “The need for him to step aside is more urgent tonight than when I first called for it on Tuesday.” Doggett added: “We may not be the Lord Almighty,” but “Mr. President, the risk of a Trump presidency, to destroy our democracy, to take over the government and never give it back again, is so great that we have to have our strongest candidate.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
July 5, 2024, 9:07 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:07 p.m. ET
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Mark Buell, a prominent Democratic donor, responds to Biden’s dismissing concerns of his age and condition in his interview with ABC News. “Biden is on a slide that he is trying to curb,” Buell just texted me. “If he isn’t successful, he may soon become a verb.”
Katie Glueck
July 5, 2024, 9:04 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:04 p.m. ET
Katie Glueck
Some Democrats saw this interview as a wash — far from reassuring but not disastrous enough to convince Biden’s family that he should exit the race, leaving those who would like to see him do so in limbo.
Jazmine Ulloa
July 5, 2024, 9:02 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 9:02 p.m. ET
Jazmine Ulloa
Vice President Kamala Harris just stepped off Air Force 2 in New Orleans under a black umbrella to take cover from a thunderstorm. I shouted a question asking what she thought of the Biden interview. She simply smiled and waved as she climbed into a waiting S.U.V.
Annie Karni
July 5, 2024, 8:58 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 8:58 p.m. ET
Annie Karni
The immediate reaction from the House Democrats I’m talking to is that Biden’s performance was stronger than in the debate but that he appears to still be in a state of denial. The ones I’m texting with are left with the sense that nothing about the interview inspired confidence in those with doubts about his ability to run and beat Trump.
Annie Karni
July 5, 2024, 8:57 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 8:57 p.m. ET
Annie Karni
Jeffries plans to meet virtually with top House Democrats on Biden’s path ahead.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, has scheduled a virtual meeting on Sunday with senior House Democrats to discuss President Biden’s candidacy and the path forward, according to a senior official familiar with the plan.
The session, which is to include the ranking members of congressional committees who make up the top echelons of the party in the House, comes at a time of profound worry among Democrats on Capitol Hill about Mr. Biden’s poor performance at last week’s presidential debate. House Democrats have not met as a group since, even as concerns have mounted about Mr. Biden’s viability as a candidate and the impact he could have on his party’s ability to win back control of the chamber and hold the Senate should he remain in the race.
Mr. Jeffries has been in listening mode all week, refraining from pressuring Democrats to rally around the president but also encouraging them not to be rash in their public pronouncements as Mr. Biden and his team determine the best path forward.
But Democrats have begun to splinter. Four in the House — Representatives Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Mike Quigley of Illinois — have called for the president to withdraw, while others have made public their serious concerns about his ability to prevail in the race.
On Friday, Mr. Quigley said he had had a “hard time” getting to the point of urging the president to get out of the race.
But, he told MSNBC, “clearly, the alternative now is a very bleak scenario with, I would say, almost no hope of succeeding — and it doesn’t just affect the White House. It affects all of Congress and our future.”
Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, has been working to organize a meeting of Democrats in his chamber to discuss their concerns about Mr. Biden’s candidacy and what should be done, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the effort who spoke about it on the condition of anonymity.
Maggie Haberman
July 5, 2024, 8:55 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 8:55 p.m. ET
Maggie Haberman
The note that Biden kept striking — that this was about him and his legacy — is not sitting well with some Democrats who are worried about keeping control of legislative seats.
Michael Gold
July 5, 2024, 8:41 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 8:41 p.m. ET
Michael Gold
The Trump campaign has not put out a formal statement in response to Biden’s interview with ABC News, but some advisers were posting real-time critical reactions on social media as it aired. “Biden is in denial and in decline,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, wrote.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
July 5, 2024, 8:38 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 8:38 p.m. ET
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
“I don’t think this will settle concerns,” David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, tells me.
Maya Miller
July 5, 2024, 8:37 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 8:37 p.m. ET
Maya Miller
Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California and a Biden surrogate, said he expected “complete transparency” from the White House and a willingness to answer “many legitimate questions” from the news media and voters about the president’s abilities. “He has to earn that trust, and that requires more than one interview,” Khanna said.
Katie Rogers
July 5, 2024, 8:36 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 8:36 p.m. ET
Katie Rogers
This interview is only going to widen the rift between Biden’s fiercely defiant camp, which lives increasingly in a trench mentality, and the rest of the establishment.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
July 5, 2024, 8:33 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 8:33 p.m. ET
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Biden was not just dismissive of concerns about his age and campaign — he questioned the fact that people are concerned. He said he did not believe polls, even though most have shown him with low approval ratings. He questioned whether his own supporters were worried whether he can lead for four more years, even though polling has shown the president’s age is a top concern for voters.
Robert Jimison
July 5, 2024, 8:34 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 8:34 p.m. ET
Robert Jimison
This has frustrated a number of Democrats in Congress, and Biden did very little tonight to address those concerns. Many of those people have been saying both publicly and privately that tonight’s interview was crucial to keeping the growing sense of frustration from spilling out publicly.
Maggie Haberman
July 5, 2024, 8:31 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 8:31 p.m. ET
Maggie Haberman
Biden repeatedly refused to acknowledge the premise of the questions from Stephanopoulos about the concerns about his chances against Trump, and about his cognition. Biden and his family often see challenges as another obstacle for an underestimated person to surmount. He refuses to see this moment as different.
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| By Shane Goldmacher
It was a high-stakes interview for Biden. How did he do?
President Biden standing onstage with a crowd of supporters behind him.
He downplayed. He denied. He dismissed.
President Biden’s first television interview since his poor debate performance last week was billed as a prime-time opportunity to reassure the American people that he still has what it takes to run for, win and hold the nation’s highest office.
But Mr. Biden, with more than a hint of hoarseness in his voice, spent much of the 22 minutes resisting a range of questions that George Stephanopoulos of ABC | News had posed — about his competence, about taking a cognitive test, about his standing in the polls.
The president on Friday did not struggle to complete his thoughts the way he did at the debate. But at the same time he was not the smooth-talking senator of his youth, or even the same elder statesman whom the party entrusted four years ago to defeat former President Donald J. Trump.
Instead, it was a high-stakes interview with an 81-year-old president whose own party is increasingly doubting him yet who sounded little like a man with any doubts about himself.
Here are four takeaways:
Biden downplays the debate as a one-time flub.
The interview was Mr. Biden’s longest unscripted appearance in public since his faltering debate performance. The delay has had his allies on Capitol Hill and beyond confused about what was keeping the president cloistered behind closed doors — or depending upon teleprompters — for so long.
The eight-day lag has seen the first members of Congress call for him to step aside and donors demand that the party consider switching candidates. It also heightened the scrutiny of every word Mr. Biden said.
He was in a defensive posture throughout, arguing that his past performance should be proof enough about his capacity in the future.
“It was a bad episode,” the president said. “No indication of any serious condition.”
He blamed exhaustion but also being so sick ahead of the debate that his doctors tested him for Covid-19. But what he would not agree to was any kind of neurological examination.
“Look, I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day, I have that test,” Mr. Biden said, suggesting that the job of the presidency was its own type of test. He declined repeatedly to sit for an independent exam.
Mr. Biden’s challenge is that there is little he can say in a single interview to solve the fallout of a stumbling performance that tens of millions of Americans watched live.
George Stephanopoulos sits in a chair across from President Biden, who sits with his legs crossed and his hands folded on his lap.
Biden did better than the debate. But will that be enough?
Some of Mr. Biden’s answers were neither compelling nor cohesive.
He paused for multiple seconds early in the interview after Mr. Stephanopoulos asked what had gone wrong a week earlier.
“The whole way I prepared, nobody’s fault mine. Nobody’s fault but mine,” Mr. Biden eventually said. “I, uh, prepared what I usually would do, sitting down as I did, come back with foreign leaders or National Security Council for explicit detail. And I realized about partway through that, you know, I quoted The New York Times had me down 10 points before the debate, 9 now or whatever the hell it is. The fact of the matter is that what I looked at is that he also lied 28 times. I couldn’t, I mean, the way the debate ran, not — my fault, no one else’s fault — no one else’s fault.”
The answer was meandering and circular, even if it was not as bad as his worst moments at the debate in Atlanta. But it was hardly a crisp and concise reassurance for members of his party squinting to imagine what a second debate with Mr. Trump might look like in September.
Mr. Biden did make some arguments against Mr. Trump and for himself.
But on the central question at hand — his debate performance and what it projected about the future — Mr. Biden did not have much more to say, other than a brief aside that Mr. Trump was “still shouting” even after his microphone had been turned off and that he had let it distract him.
“I just had a bad night” was about the totality of Mr. Biden’s explanation. “I don’t know why.”
The interview was just the first, and far from the last, of tests.
The reality that some of the president’s allies have come to accept is that nearly every Biden interview, public appearance or utterance for the foreseeable future is going to come under a harsh new spotlight.
Roughly three-quarters of voters now see Mr. Biden as too old to be an effective president, according to a post-debate poll by The New York Times and Siena College.
Mr. Biden, though, is a believer in his own story as a man who takes on adversity — “America’s comeback kid,” Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey called him at a fund-raiser two days after the debate.
Mr. Biden and people close to him still hold a chip on their shoulders about how he won the 2020 presidential nomination after months of being written off.
“Look, I remember them telling me the same thing in 2020,” he said, quoting his critics. “‘I can’t win. The polls show I can’t win.’”
Four years ago, the Democratic Party did rally behind Mr. Biden with remarkable speed when he appeared the strongest candidate to take on Mr. Trump. But polling today paints a murkier picture on that critical question.
What was clear is that Mr. Biden is already thinking about himself in the pantheon of past presidents. He cited the opinion of an unnamed group of economists and foreign policy experts to render this flattering judgment:
“If I stop now, I’d go down in history as a pretty successful president.”
Biden isn’t going anywhere without the ‘Lord Almighty’ intervening.
Mr. Biden set an awfully high bar for what it would take for him to step aside.
“If the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that,” he said.
Mr. Biden repeatedly waved off polling that Mr. Stephanopoulos cited to show Mr. Biden’s weakness, including a 36 percent approval rating. “That’s not what our polls show,” Mr. Biden snapped. He said “all the pollsters” whom he speaks with tell him the race is a “tossup.”
It was not the words of a man ready to exit the stage.
As Mr. Biden said earlier in the day at a rally in Madison, Wis., “They’re trying to push me out of the race. Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race.”
When Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed him about the burbling discontent among Democratic elected officials, Mr. Biden shrugged it off. “I’ve seen it from the press,” he said.
Perhaps the most revealing answer came when Mr. Biden was asked about how he would feel if Mr. Trump were being sworn in as president in January.
“I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Mr. Biden said. (The original ABC transcript rendered the quote as “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”)
Of course, for a Democratic Party warning that Mr. Trump is an existential threat to the nation, the race is about something much simpler: winning.
The Times revised Mr. Biden’s quote in this article about how he would feel if he loses the election after White House officials and several news organizations contacted ABC on Friday about whether Mr. Biden had said “goodest” or “good as.” ABC’s standards team listened again to the audio and made the change. Mr. Biden’s actual words at that point in the interview were difficult to make out and open to interpretation.
Chris Cameron
July 5, 2024, 11:55 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 11:55 p.m. ET
Chris Cameron
Reporting from Washington
Interview appears to change few Democratic officials’ views on Biden.
President Biden walks up stairs leading into Air Force One.
President Biden had planned to use his first televised interview since his poor debate performance to reassure supporters and quiet the voices within the Democratic Party calling for him to drop out.
But many Democrats who spoke out after the interview, which aired on ABC News on Friday night, signaled that it had done little to shift their stances, regardless of whether they thought Mr. Biden should remain in the race or drop out.
A handful of current and former Democratic officials who had called on Mr. Biden to end his re-election campaign said the interview had done little, or even nothing, to address their concerns. Reliable supporters of the president’s re-election campaign similarly fanned out to television networks, declaring once more that they were sticking with Mr. Biden.
Other Democrats who had raised concerns about the president’s performance, but had not gone as far as to call for Mr. Biden to drop out, said the interview did not significantly change their views of his candidacy.
The president’s critics among the Democrats, including those asking him to step aside, said Mr. Biden appeared to be out of touch or in denial about his prospects for re-election.
Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who was the first House Democrat to call for President Biden to drop out of the race, said in an interview on CNN shortly after the ABC broadcast that “the need for him to step aside is more urgent tonight than when I first called for it on Tuesday.” He added that Mr. Biden “does not want his legacy to be that he’s the one who turned over our country to a tyrant.”
Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, also said Mr. Biden should step aside, telling CNN that he found points in the interview “disturbing” and that it was clear “the president of the United States doesn’t have the vigor necessary to overcome the deficit here.”
“He felt as long as he gave it his best effort, that’s all that really matters,” Mr. Quigley said, recounting Mr. Biden’s description of how he would feel if he lost to former President Donald J. Trump. “With the greatest respect: No.”
A handful of Democratic lawmakers who have consistently supported Mr. Biden said soon after the interview that they would stick with the president. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a chair of the Biden campaign, and Representative Robert Garcia of California said they were ready to help the president win re-election in November.
Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has repeatedly sought to rally Democrats behind the president with expletive-laden posts on social media, said, “Democrats need to get a spine or grow a set — one or the other,” adding, “Joe Biden is our guy.”
Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, a longtime ally of Mr. Biden, said on social media on Friday night that “Joe Biden is who our country needs.”
And Representative Nanette Barragán, Democrat of California and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who had backed Mr. Biden, told CNN earlier on Friday that Democrats “shouldn’t be talking about” replacing him. Later in the evening, Ms. Barragán continued to defend Mr. Biden.
“Sounds like everyone is looking for concerns — I don’t see them,” she said. “He’s quick to respond. He’s on point. He clearly understands the questions and the topics and responds accordingly. It’s a tough interview, and I think he handled it well.”
Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California and a Biden surrogate, said in a statement that he expected more from Mr. Biden to earn the trust of voters — and “that requires more than one interview.”
“I expect complete transparency from the White House about this issue,” Mr. Khanna said, “and a willingness to answer many legitimate questions from the media and voters about his capabilities.”
Julián Castro, the former Democratic presidential candidate who has called for Mr. Biden to drop out, criticized the president after the interview, telling MSNBC that Mr. Biden had been “steadier” in the interview but was in “denial about the decline that people can clearly see.”
Former Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, who also has said that Mr. Biden should step aside, said after the interview, “I don’t think he moved the needle at all.”
“I don’t think he energized anybody,” Mr. Ryan said on MSNBC. “I think there was a level of him being out of touch with reality on the ground.”
“I’m worried,” he continued, with a nervous chuckle. “I’m worried, like, I think a lot of people are, that he is just not the person to be able to get this done for us.”
Mark Buell, a prominent donor for Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party who had raised questions about the president’s performance at the debate, said in a text message that “Biden is on a slide that he is trying to curb. If he isn’t successful, he may soon become a verb.”
Maya C. Miller, Robert Jimison and Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting from Washington. Simon J. Levien contributed reporting from Massachusetts.
Robert Jimison
July 5, 2024, 11:05 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 11:05 p.m. ET
Robert Jimison
Representative James E. Clyburn, a Biden campaign co-chair, voiced support for the president late Friday evening. “Joe Biden is who our country needs, and his presidency has laid a foundation upon which we can continue our pursuit of a more perfect union,” he said in a social media post.
Robert Jimison
July 5, 2024, 11:05 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 11:05 p.m. ET
Robert Jimison
Clyburn's endorsement four years ago is often credited with helping Biden win his first term. He caused a lot of handwringing among Democrats earlier this week when he discussed the possibility of a “mini-primary“ to replace Biden before the Democratic National Convention in August.
Michael M. Grynbaum
July 5, 2024, 10:39 p.m. ETJuly 5, 2024
July 5, 2024, 10:39 p.m. ET
Michael M. Grynbaum
Michael Grynbaum covers the intersection of media and politics.
Media Memo
Respectfully but firmly, Stephanopoulos pressed Biden on his fitness for a second term.
It was, in the end, an interview as personal as it was political, a cross-examination more focused on the psyche and the inescapable reality of aging than on any points of policy or governance.
Respectfully but firmly, the ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos on Friday pressed President Biden, again and again, on the basic questions that Americans had asked themselves over the past eight days, since 51 million people saw a diminished Mr. Biden struggle to perform on the debate stage.
“Are you more frail?”
“Have there been more lapses?”
“Have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination?”
And as Mr. Biden dismissed all those concerns one by one — flicking away the cascading worries about his health, his electability, his capacity to serve in his office for four additional years — Mr. Stephanopoulos zeroed in on the matters of pride, dignity and self-worth swirling beneath the surface.
“Are you sure,” the anchor asked, “you’re being honest with yourself?”
At 81, Mr. Biden is 18 years older than his interlocutor. The president arrived at the ABC interview on Friday tanned and tieless, his top two shirt buttons undone, making every effort to project youth and vitality. Yet a viewer could not help but imagine the mop-haired Mr. Stephanopoulos in the role of an adult son, guiding an elderly parent toward a conclusion that may be difficult, and deeply painful, to accept.
It is too soon to say if their 22-minute encounter on Friday, taped in the library of a Wisconsin middle school and broadcast by ABC in prime time, will count among the most consequential interviews in presidential history. But it carried some of the highest stakes.
Democrats’ confidence in Mr. Biden’s ability to defeat his Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, plummeted in the aftermath of last week’s debate. The president’s soft voice, extended pauses and slurred words — once viewed by supporters as an unsettling, if benign, fact of his public appearances — had taken on far darker implications.
Mr. Biden evinced many of those traits again on Friday, his voice turning hoarse and hesitant at times. His answers occasionally meandered. He was much improved from the shaky president who stood across from Mr. Trump last Thursday, but neither was he in the fighting form of his 2020 debates.
When Mr. Stephanopoulos jumped straight to the point — “You and your team have said you had a bad night” — Mr. Biden bared his teeth in a smile.
“Sure did,” he replied, equal parts humility and nonchalance. Hey. It happens.
But then the anchor began to press. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker and an ally of the president, wondered if Mr. Biden had more serious health issues. Mr. Biden blamed jet lag, but he had been back from Europe for more than a week. Did he realize, onstage, how badly he was doing?
The president, who has interacted with Mr. Stephanopoulos for decades, including when the anchor served in the Clinton White House, tried to parry with some humor. “You’ve had some bad interviews once in a while,” he teased.
“I’ve had plenty,” Mr. Stephanopoulos replied. But, he pointed out, millions of people watched a debate that seemed to confirm fears about the president’s age.
When Mr. Biden blamed the press for amplifying the concerns of Democratic leaders, the anchor said he had heard from dozens of supporters who “want you to go with grace.” And when Mr. Biden tried to deflect by ticking off achievements of his administration, Mr. Stephanopoulos countered, “What has all that work over the last three and a half years cost you physically, mentally, emotionally?”
As the interview neared its end, Mr. Stephanopoulos pivoted back to realpolitik. “If you stay in, and Trump is elected, and everything you’re warning about comes to pass,” he asked, “how will you feel in January?”
“I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Mr. Biden said. (The original ABC transcript rendered the quote as “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”)
At one point, Mr. Stephanopoulos posed a series of scenarios to |
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