- President Joe Biden joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday morning
- He railed against his critics, calling them members of an elite out of touch with reality.
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President Joe Biden, 81, pulled a Trump-style stunt on Monday, going on a sympathetic television show to defend himself amid calls to step aside and daring critics to run against him at his party’s convention next month.
He laughed off suggestions he be tested to explain his faltering debate performance and insisted he was not going to drop out of the race.
Instead, he listed his administration’s achievements and painted his critics as an out-of-touch elite, while he fought for his political life.
And he chuckled when Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski asked him if he had been tested for pre-Parkinson’s or other diseases that might explain why he couldn’t finish his sentence in his debate with Donald Trump.
“I’ve had it happen before. I was feeling really bad before the debate,” she said. “When I came back, they tested me beforehand. I thought maybe I had COVID. Maybe there was something wrong… I had an infection or something.
President Joe Biden, 81, pulled a Trump-like stunt on Monday, joining a sympathetic television show to defend himself amid calls to step aside and challenging critics to run against him.
“They did tests on me, they did those tests on me. I was fine, but I had a bad night.”
A growing chorus of Democratic donors, officials and elected representatives have urged Biden to forgo reelection in favor of someone else who might be better positioned to beat Trump.
A DailyMail.com poll found Trump had widened his lead over the president to six points last week.
Biden launched a counteroffensive last week with radio interviews, a prime-time television appearance and a weekend of campaign events.
But the effort raised as many questions as it did answers, with errors in lines and the revelation that a radio interviewer had been sent approved questions.
The situation is expected to escalate this week when members of Congress return to Capitol Hill after their July 4 holiday. Nine of them have already called on him to resign.
Biden wrote them a two-page letter on Monday calling for an end to the intraparty drama.
And he told Morning Joe that the big names calling for him to step aside — from the New York Times editorial board to Rep. Jerry Nadler to former presidential candidate Tim Ryan — were out of touch.
“I don’t care what those big names think. They were wrong in 2020, they were wrong in 2022 about the red wave. They’re wrong in 2024,” he said, urging them to go out with him on the campaign trail to see how black voters in particular still supported him.
Biden makes a campaign stop at an AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) local union in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Last year, Biden was leading Trump, but the former president has since taken the lead. Trump now has a six-point lead, according to our exclusive poll.
Supporters said the interview went smoothly and his voice was strong, but his tendency to mumble made it difficult to follow his words over the phone at times.
And Republicans said it sounded like he was reading lines from notes.
Biden insisted he remains his party’s choice for the nomination.
“I feel very frustrated by the elites. By the way, I’m not talking about you… the party elites,” he said.
“Do you know much more? If any of these guys don’t think I should run for office, let them run against me, let them announce their candidacy for president, let them challenge me at the convention.”
His campaign previously released the two-page letter to congressional Democrats.
“We have 42 days until the Democratic Convention and 119 days until the general election,” he said.
“Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only benefits Trump and hurts us. It’s time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.”