US President Joe Biden speaks as he participates in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at CNN's studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024.WASHINGTON, United States — Democrats shocked by Joe Biden's dismal debate performance urged the US president Tuesday to be transparent about his mental fitness as he faced the first call from his own side to drop out of the election.
Biden has not given a live interview since the debacle, but will be interviewed by ABC on Friday with the first clips released later that day.Speaking at a fundraiser, Biden said he "wasn't very smart" for "traveling around the world a couple times... shortly before the debate."Biden traveled to France from June 5 to 9 to commemorate the 1944 Allied landings, headed back to the United States, and then to Italy for a G7 summit followed immediately by a visit to California.
The polling margins between the president and his Republican predecessor have been razor-thin for months, with Trump showing a slight advantage. "The outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don't plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win," he wrote. Biden, who has always been gaffe-prone, has not given a long press conference since January 2022 and spends most weekends in one of his Delaware homes, with no official schedule.