7/5/24: DEFIANT BIDEN: 'Not Dropping Out,' REFUSES Cognitive Test
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Hi, I'm Katie Lowe's and I'm Guillermo Diaz. And we're the hosts of Unpacking the Toolbox, the Scandal Rewatch podcast where we're talking about all the best moments of the show. Mesmerizing. But also we get to hang out with all of our old scandal friends like Bellamy Young, Scott Foley, Tony Goldwyn, Debbie Allen, Kerry Washington. Well, suit up, gladiators. Grab your big old glass of wine and prepare yourselves for even more behind the scenes stories with Unpacking the Toolbox podcast.

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Listen to Misspelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Angie Martinez, and on my podcast, I like to talk to everyone from Hall of Fame athletes to iconic musicians about getting real on some of the complications and challenges of real life.

I had the best dad and I had the best memories and the greatest experience. And that's all I want for my kids as long as they can have that. Listen to Angie Martinez IRL on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, everybody. Some major breaking news tonight. President Biden has now sat for his very first television interview since his disastrous debate performance. And since calls from Democrats from behind closed doors, some in front have called for him to drop out of the race. First and foremost, ABC News, George Stephanopoulos asked him, so what the hell happened?

what went wrong in that debate biden is sticking with the excuse that he had a bad cold and blaming international travel even though he returned to the united states some 11 to 12 days prior to the debate let's take a listen to that answer let's start with the debate you and your team said have said you had a bad night but your but your friend nancy pelosi actually framed the question i think is on the minds of millions of americans was this a bad episode with a sign of a more serious condition

It's a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn't listen to my instincts in terms of preparing. And I had a bad night. You know, you say you were exhausted, 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 there.

in Camp David. Why wasn't that enough rest time, enough recovery time? Because I was sick. I was feeling terrible. Matter of fact, the docs with me, I asked them if they did a COVID test because they were 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. All right. So as you can see, he's sticking to that excuse about the quote unquote bad cold. The second moment that really caught everybody's eye. Keep in mind, this is only in the first two minutes.

and it was released by ABC, is when he's asked, so did you even watch the debate? He cannot remember whether he watched the debate. He spaces out, looks off into the distance for almost a full five seconds, can barely answer, and then basically musters up, it was a bad episode, that's what it was, let's just stick with that, and I am moving forward. Let's take a listen. Did you ever watch the debate afterwards? I don't think I did, no.

Well, 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? Yeah, look, the whole way I prepared, nobody's fault of mine. Nobody's fault of mine. I prepared what I usually would do, sitting down, as I did come back with foreign leaders or the National Security Council, for explicit detail. And I realized about partway through that

I get quoted, the New York Times had me down at 10 points before the debate, nine 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, nobody else's fault, no one else's fault. But it seemed like you were having trouble from the first question in, even before he spoke. Well, I just had a bad night.

Okay, so that was those were the two flagship moments from the debate that occurred just in the first two minutes. I'm going to go ahead and break down the rest of it for you. And I have some of my notes in front of me as I was watching it live. It's approximately about 835 p.m. here on the East Coast.

what happened is is that president biden was asked a full three times by abc news whether he would be whether he would commit to a cognitive test he refused multiple times to say yes he just kept saying quote i've already done it pointing to his job performance

as evidence that he was cognitively good enough to do the job. He was similarly asked whether he would commit to a neurological exam. Even though he referenced his checkup, he has not had a full neurological makeup, looking for dementia or any other signs of aging, Alzheimer-related symptoms.

He said again that the full neurological test he takes is his work every day as president. There was one moment that really caught my eye. ABC News quote, are you more frail? President Biden? No. Come keep my schedule. Keep in mind, this is from the person who we have now learned had to take multiple afternoon naps during his debate preparation.

had to take two full days off, go to his beach house, and frankly, had an entire week to prepare with advisors at Camp David doing absolutely nothing even ahead of his debate. There was also a few other moments which really caught my eye here as they got very deep into Biden's psychology. I'm going to read again directly.

Are you being honest about your ability to defeat Donald Trump? Biden? Yes. Yes. Yes. He said that the polls were not accurate, showing him losing to Donald Trump. ABC News challenged him, saying, Mr. President, I have never seen a president with a

36% approval rating, get reelected. He claimed that his own internal polls showed something different. He says he is going to challenge Donald Trump in a way that he's never been challenged before. And he hasn't done it yet because he's been too busy with foreign affairs. He also claimed that every pollster that he talks to says that he is in a toss-up. So, I mean, Biden is full-on delusional. I mean, every single major high-quality, even frankly low-quality poll says

at this point shows him losing significantly to Donald Trump. Every single poll that has come out after the debate has only showed Trump expanding his lead over Joe Biden. George Stephanopoulos at ABC actually, to his credit, pressed him on that and said, hey, you know, how exactly is this going to get done? And he just continued to point to enthusiasm in a very Trumpian move. Actually, he said, have you ever seen anybody draw as big of a crowd as me? Keep in mind, at a

frankly, small gymnasium that he was just at at a campaign event in Wisconsin. ABC was like, I don't think you want to play that game because Donald Trump also draws very large crowds. Continuing, this is perhaps the most significant.

Biden claimed that Democratic discontent over his candidacy is just something that he's seen from the press. Now, keep in mind, there's only been a few public officials now. I think it's one or two members of the House of Representatives that have come out and said that Joe Biden should drop out of the race. Senator Mark Warner allegedly behind the scenes is trying to organize a group of senators.

to try and tell Biden to drop out. Biden was asked to respond to that, and he just said, "Mark is a good man." Keep this in mind. I'm taking that with a grain of salt because Mark Warner has not come out and said that publicly. That is something that has simply just been leaked to the Washington Post. Continuing on, President Biden just said that the vast majority of Democrats

He says, had his internal polls show a different approval rating. I mean, much of the answers here just show a man who is completely shrouded in delusion, who has convinced himself with visions of grandeur. I mean, he was asked why he wouldn't step aside for a stronger candidate, and he said,

and he claimed that he was the strongest candidate i mean one of the most poignant moments actually came near the end of the interview i'm going to go ahead and play it for you guys george stephanopoulos asked him if you stay in and trump is elected and everything you're warning about comes to pass how you will feel in january here is what joe biden had to say and if you stay in and trump is elected and everything you're warning about comes to pass how will you feel in january

I 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. 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 look 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 at least checkmating China now? Who's gonna do that? Who has that reach? Who knows all this? 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.

all right i mean he's putting it all out on the line he basically thinks everybody is being a bed wetter he thinks that uh all of these people are freaking out for no reason that he's got plenty of tricks left up his sleeve uh he was asked again twice of not only about his cognitive ability but can you really keep doing this job

for four more years after this, and he would point to his accomplishments. Now, I will say this, like this is my own personal thing. The number one thing he always brags about throughout this entire interview is expanding NATO as if that's something that we're supposed to,

to brag about. Expanding the U.S. nuclear security umbrella and increasing the likelihood of war was part of our disastrous policy in Ukraine. He also at one point bragged about a peace plan in the Middle East. Anyone want to check in over on the Middle East? Tell me exactly what's going on there. I mean, some of the answers here are just

They're insane. I guess ABC, to their credit, they say, look, we released the full interview and there was no edits. But I mean, this is where I have to hit them a little bit. 22 minutes, guys, 22 minutes, just to give people some, you know, some behind the scenes.

I interviewed Donald Trump four separate times in the Oval Office over the span of two years. Not one of those interviews was less than 35 minutes. Not one was less than 35 minutes. I believe the longest one was an hour and six minutes. Now, sure, that's certainly a little bit atypical just because it was Trump. And, you know, I guess there's some difference between camera as well. But Trump, I mean, he sat for hours.

hour long interviews. He more recently did podcasts and more. So 22 minutes in this business is a joke. It is especially a joke coming from the man who just basically melted down on stage over a 90 minute debate and then waited eight

nine days to do a 22 measly interview. I can also report to you guys. We're going to be talking a lot about this on Monday that he will be doing a full press conference, solo press conference to allay everybody's concerns. Yeah. Guess when it is on Thursday. So he,

He needed a week to prepare for the debate, then needed a week to prepare, you know, outside of his 10 major events, which were all just campaign events reading off of a teleprompter where he keeps just saying there's no way I'm going to drop out. There's no way I'm going to drop out. Even as a groundswell of opinion, you know, starts to mount against him. What comes through to me?

Everywhere I've gone this week, literally everywhere, barbershop, gym, wherever I am in public, people are asking me, they're like, hey, so do you think that Biden is going to drop out? And I'll repeat what I put out there already is that I will never bet against Joe Biden's arrogance. And his arrogance came through significantly.

so much throughout this very very short interview my personal favorite moment is uh george stefanopoulos asked him so who could get you to drop out and he just said the lord almighty and he's not coming down so absent

The Lord Almighty, he's not going anywhere. Maybe, you know, there could be a democratic revolt and other things that happen behind the scenes. But guys, I can tell you he is clinging to this, honestly, even harder than he probably he was before. He brought up that the press and everybody had counted him out beforehand in 2020.

And in 2022, he's basically sticking to a theory that all of the polls are wrong, that he's been an incredible, amazing president, that the policies that he has done is setting the United States up for victory over the next six to seven decades. He believes in his head. He is FDR. He thinks he is a world transformational president. He believes that he is the best man for the job.

He claimed that he was the best candidate, the one most qualified to defeat Donald Trump. So as of right now, he's not going anywhere, guys, even though in this interview, he had several moments just kind of trailed off, lost his train of thought, coughed, sneezed.

stumbled, unable to get a sentence out with any semblance of clarity. So it was a revealing interview in several ways. Both his condition is exactly the same as it was during the debate. I guess the only good thing is he has committed to another debate, so we'll all get to see it a second time around.

sometime in september will be on a_b_c_ news the same channel uh... that broadcasted this interview but want to make sure i went and brought this this is a major moment is that literally the first explanation we've gotten from the president and even a semi hostile question setting and he has given us all the answers

to the questions of if he's going to drop out. No. Are you worried about Democrats? What do you say to Democrats? Don't worry about it. I'm actually winning in my secret polls, and there is nobody who can get me to drop out of this race except for the Lord Almighty. And he claims that Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Jim Clyburn, they all told him to keep running. So that's where we're at. We'll have a great show for everybody on Monday, and if anything breaks, I'll be back here over the weekend. I'll see you guys later.

Hi, I'm Katie Lowes. And I'm Guillermo Diaz. And we're the hosts of Unpacking the Toolbox, the Scandal Rewatch podcast where we're talking about all the best moments of the show. Mesmerizing. But also, we get to hang out with all of our old Scandal friends like Bellamy Young, Scott Foley, Tony Goldwyn, Debbie Allen, Kerry Washington. Well, suit up, gladiators. Grab your big old glass of wine and prepare yourselves for an even more behind-the-scenes Scandal.

stories with Unpacking the Toolbox. Listen to Unpacking the Toolbox on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life in marriage. I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words that I've said like in my head for like 16 years.

Listen to Misspelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Angie Martinez, and on my podcast, I like to talk to everyone from Hall of Fame athletes to iconic musicians about getting real on some of the complications and challenges of real life.

I had the best dad and I had the best memories and the greatest experience. And that's all I want for my kids as long as they can have that. Listen to Angie Martinez IRL on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.