A taped sit-down interview with former Clinton White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos is no test of competence for an aging 81-year-old President Joe Biden struggling to reassure voters concerned about his cognitive decline.
On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported former President Barack Obama delivered a “harsher assessment of the presidential race than his public comments” suggest behind closed doors days after defending his former vice president over a catastrophic debate performance.
“Bad debate nights happen,” Obama wrote in an online post following the Atlanta debate. “Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”
But according to The Washington Post citing “several people familiar” with the former president’s behind-the-scenes remarks, “Obama has privately told allies who have reached out to him that President Biden’s already tough path to reelection grew more challenging after his shaky debate performance on Thursday.”
The New York Times followed the report with another story published Wednesday morning that a Biden ally disclosed the incumbent’s apparent consideration of “whether he can recover after a devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta” before the Democratic Party’s August
