was:

Joe Biden’s presidential reelection bid hung in the balance Saturday after his latest efforts to put a disastrous debate showing behind him failed to silence voices urging him to quit the White House race.

Murmurs of dissent within his own Democratic Party have — in the case of five individual House representatives — morphed into direct calls for him to drop out. And a number of key donors have threatened to cut off funding if Biden insists on staying the course.

“I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump,” Angie Craig, the latest House Democrat to break ranks, said Saturday.

The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has scheduled a virtual meeting of senior Democrat representatives for Sunday to discuss the best way forward, and Democrat Senator Mark Warner is reportedly working to convene a similar forum in the upper chamber.

In what had been billed as a make-or-break TV interview on Friday, Biden’s strategy was to flatly deny the falling poll numbers and concerns over his mental and physical fitness triggered by his dismal performance against rival Donald Trump.

He blamed a severe cold for the debate debacle and insisted it was just a “bad night” rather than evidence of increasing frailty and cognitive decline. And the 81-year-old was adamant that he would not be pressured to end his campaign.

“If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race,” he said. “But the Lord Almighty is not coming down.”

Calls for less divine intervention do, however, appear to be strengthening.

Internal dissent

Biden’s campaign team is pushing ahead regardless, with two events planned in Pennsylvania on Sunday and visits to other battleground states later in the month.

At a rally in Wisconsin before Friday’s interview, Biden had delivered a forceful, energetic stump speech, unequivocally declaring, “I’m staying in the race. I’ll beat Donald Trump.”

Then came the sit-down with the ABC network that appeared unlikely to soothe the concerns of critics who say that — away from a teleprompter — Biden can struggle to communicate.

Some of his answers were tentative, meandering and difficult to follow, even as he sought to deflect questions about his mental acuity and dismissed the notion that his party would consider replacing him.

The Biden campaign had another small fire to put out Saturday after it emerged that the White House had provided the questions for interviews the president gave to two Black radio stations on Friday.

Out of touch?

Democratic strategist David Axelrod suggested in a CNN op-ed that Biden is engaged in “Denial. Delusion. Defiance.”

“The stakes are as great as Biden describes. And if he believes it, as I think he does, he will eventually do what duty and love of country requires, and step aside,” Axelrod wrote in the piece published Saturday.

“If he does not, it will be Biden’s age, and not Trump’s moral and ethical void, that will dominate the rest of this most important campaign and sully the president’s historic legacy.”

Trump, meanwhile, sarcastically suggested Biden should “ignore his many critics and move forward, with alacrity and strength.”

“He should be sharp, precise and energetic, just like he was in The Debate,” the Republican challenger said in a social media post Saturday.

For now, Democrats are largely keeping a lid on any simmering discontent with their leader — at least in public.

But with election day just four months away, any move to replace Biden as nominee would need to be made sooner rather than later, and the meetings of top Congressional Democrats in coming days will be scrutinized for any signs of more open rebellion.

Meanwhile, for Biden and his campaign team, the strategy seems to be to ride it out.

His next major test will be a press conference scheduled for Thursday during the NATO leaders’ summit in Washington.

When pressed in the ABC interview on why he doesn’t take an independent neurological exam, Biden argued that the role of US president meant being subjected to constant mental assessment.

“I have a cognitive test every single day,” he said. “Not only am I campaigning, I’m running the world.” 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. President Joe Biden has dismissed concerns about his health and doubts about his re-election bid in November, brushing off a poor performance in the presidential debate as a “bad episode” and insisting that only “the Lord almighty” could persuade him to exit the race.

Mr. Biden, 81, said this on July 5 in a television interview, a week after his disastrous debate performance in Atlanta against his Republican rival Donald Trump, following which some of his own Democratic Party leaders started urging him to step down and his approval rating plummeted.

In the 22-minute high-stakes interview on ABC News aimed at quelling a burgeoning rebellion in the Democratic party, Mr. Biden, who is seeking a second term, said he had “a bad night” and he was “exhausted” and “sick” during his first presidential debate with Mr. Trump.

He asserted that only the “Lord Almighty” could make him drop out of the race to win the November 5 election.

He claimed that he is “running the world” and no one is “more qualified” to be President.

Asked whether he would be willing to have an independent cognitive evaluation and release the results to the American people, Mr. Biden said: “Look, I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I’ve had tests. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, I’m running the world.”

The President said in the interview that he was “sick” before the debate. Asked whether it was a bad episode or a sign of a more serious condition, Mr. Biden dismissed those concerns.

“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,” Mr. Biden said during his first interview after the debate, adding that his top party leadership are asking him to stay in the race.

“Because I was sick. I was feeling terrible. Matter of fact the docs (doctors are) with me. I asked 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, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold,” he said and reiterated multiple times that he was running for the presidency.

Blaming himself for the bad debate night in Atlanta, Mr. Biden said, “Yeah, look. The whole way I prepared, nobody’s fault but 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,” adding that Mr. Trump “lied 28 times” during the debate.

Mr. Biden said none of the major Democratic party leaders have asked him to drop out and asserted that he would withdraw only if the “Lord Almighty” asked him to.

“If the Lord Almighty came down and said ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race. The Lord Almighty’s not coming down,” he added.

The President tried to avoid questions on both his mental fitness and cognitive tests.

“Do you dispute that there have been more lapses, especially in the last seven months?” Mr. Biden was asked.

“Can I run the 100 in 10 flat? No. But I’m still in good shape,” he responded.

“Are you more frail?” he was asked. “No. Come keep my schedule,” he said.

Mr. Biden alleged that Mr. Trump is a pathological liar.

Asked by the interviewer whether he was being honest with himself about his ability to beat Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden said, “Yes. Yes, yes, yes.” He pointed to previous polls that showed he couldn’t win in 2020 as proof and subsequent down-ballot elections, denying extensive polling that reflects a race where he is trailing.

In a reaction to Biden’s interview, Indian American Congressman Ro Khanna, according to The New York Times, 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 was quoted as saying by the daily.

ABC News said it offered a similar one-on-one interview to Trump, 78, but the former president declined.

Earlier during a rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin, Biden asserted that he is in the race and will win the election again.

“We had a little debate last week. Can’t say it was my best performance. But ever since then, there’s been a lot of speculation. What’s Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? Is he going to drop out? What’s he going to do? Well, here’s my answer. I am running and going to win again,” Mr. Biden told his cheering supporters.

“…Some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for, well, guess what? They’re trying to push me out of the race. Well, let me say this as clearly as I can. I’m staying in the race. I’ll beat Donald Trump. I beat him in 2020. And by the way, we’re going to do it again in 2024.” Biden also took this opportunity to address the issue of his advancing age.

“You probably also noticed a lot of discussion about my age. I keep seeing all those stories about I’m being too old. Let me say something. I wasn’t too old to create over 15 million new jobs to make sure 21 million Americans are insured under the Affordable Care Act; to beat Big Pharma, the first firm to ever do that, and lower the cost of it to $35 a season,” he said.