President Biden sat down with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos on Friday while he was in Madison, Wisconsin for a campaign rally. Oof.

I watched it live when it aired in primetime. Everyone has their opinion about the interview, either from watching it or from watching video clips. The very brief interview deserves to be the center of attention today. And tomorrow. And further down the road.

The interview was supposed to calm Democrats down. It was supposed to prove that Old Joe has it in him to be president. It did the opposite. As expected, Biden showed he is an old man who suffers from dementia. Harsh, but true.

Here is a tweet I posted as I watched;

The wrap-up: Biden doesn't believe the polls, he won't take a cognitive test, and he listens to a very small inner circle who want him to stay in the race - Jill, Hunter included.

— Karen Townsend (@penguinponders) July 6, 2024

That is my conclusion in a nutshell. 

George Stephanopoulos concentrated on asking Biden about his mental acuity. Biden dodged the question, trying to make light of it, but to his credit, George persisted. He kept asking and re-asking about his cognitive state. Biden insisted he is as sharp as he was in 2020. He denied that he had slipped. The man is in heavy denial.

Biden isn't going anywhere, certainly not right now. Stephanopoulos asked what it would take for him to get out of the race. 

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: If you can be convinced that you cannot defeat Donald Trump, will you stand down?

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: (LAUGH)- It depends on-- on if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that.

What struck me was how much in denial he is about polls and that Trump is expected to win in November if everything remains as it is now. I pondered - is it his mental decline, his super big ego, or are those around him hiding the reality from him? Are they only telling him what he wants to hear? 

He has a small circle of people around him. Jill, Hunter, and some people who have been with him for a long time. They are all telling him to remain in the race, according to him. I have no doubt that is true. The most telling answer about Biden's thirst for power came when George asked how he would feel if he stayed in and Trump won. Biden said as long as he could say that he gave it all he had, he'd be ok.

 WOW. 

George asked if he watched a replay of the debate. He said, "I don't think I did. No." I don't think so. That is not normal. He should know if he did or not. 

Biden made some crazy assertions. He claimed he gets big crowds when he holds events. George said that Trump gets really big crowds and Biden replied, "But who does he have?" Oh, I dunno, Joe. The support of a least half of the voters at this point. 

Senator Warner (D-VA) is bringing together a group of senators to talk about asking Biden to leave the race. George asked about his response to that move. Biden kinda brushed it off and said Warner ran for the nomination himself - like it was sour grapes or something. Warner, though, has never run for the nomination. Was he thinking of Senator Tim Kaine, the other senator from Virginia who was Hillary's running mate in 2016? Maybe.

Biden often tried to change subjects by inserting his record. 

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: The number of Americans who think you're too old to serve has doubled since 2020. Wouldn't a clear-eyed political calculus tell you that it's gonna be much tougher to win in 2024?

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Not when you're running against a pathological liar. Not when he hadn't been challenged in a way that he was about to be challenged. Not when people--

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You've had months to challenge him.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Oh, sure, I had months, but I was also doin' a hell of a lot of other things, like wars around the world, like keeping NATO together, like working-- anyway. But look.

Biden calling anyone else a pathological liar is amusing. Pot/kettle, Joe. 

Biden said he is the one who "put NATO together" and "kept Putin in his place." NATO was formed after World War II and formalized in 1949. Putin has not been contained. Biden said a little incursion might be ok when Putin was saber-rattling about invading Ukraine. Biden sat back and let it happen when alarms were being sounded. Putin's war continues. It was because of Biden's weakness that Putin went forward. 

He said he is up to the job - just look at his schedule. That, too, is dicey territory for Sleepy Joe. He admits he needs more sleep and can only work limited hours. He also has a record of taking 40% of his time in office off, usually going to one of his homes in Delaware or to Camp David. 

There are some things Biden has no control over and they were evident during the interview. Biden's blank stares, his bumbling sentences, he loses his thought halfway through an answer, and though the interview was about 15 minutes long, Biden was fading at the end. 

Biden made the usual phony claims against Trump, like when he said that Trump told people to inject bleach to fight COVID-19. He looked desperate to say anything to deflect attention to Trump instead of being held accountable for his ability to do his job. He slammed the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity.

To his credit, George did his best to keep Biden focused on the questions he asked instead of letting Biden filibuster with stump speech screeds. 

Rep. Bryan Steil, House Administration Chairman, is a Republican from Wisconsin [see update]. This morning on Fox, he said that Trump "absolutely" will win Wisconsin, as he did in 2016. It will be a turn-out election and Steil said voters are ready for change. 

Biden is not going to "stand down", as George asked. Only if God intervenes, he said. The days going forward will be interesting as more and more Democrats are falling away from him.

The fact that ABC News moved the interview up to primetime Friday night instead of running it during George's Sunday show speaks volumes. Team Biden is in full CYA mode. It couldn't wait until Sunday. 

I'm not sure the results are what the campaign hoped for. It was the same as we have seen from Biden for four years. Conservative critics are vindicated every time we see Biden after the debate. There is no more covering it up. The big lie - Biden's sham presidency - has been exposed. 

There was a young man in the audience at Biden's campaign rally, in the group of people behind Biden. He held up a sign that read, "Pass the torch." That sums up the situation.  

Correction: Rep. Steil represents WI-01, not WI-02, where Biden was campaigning a few days ago. We've edited out the reference to Biden's campaign stop.