President Biden sought to steady his reelection campaign by speaking with two Black radio hosts in interviews that aired Thursday, but he spoke haltingly at times in one interview and struggled to find the right sentence in another, saying he was proud to have been “the first Black woman to serve with a Black president.”
He also stumbled over his words during a four-minute July 4 speech to military families at the White House, beginning a story about former President Donald J. Trump by calling him “one of our colleagues, the former president,” then adding, “I probably shouldn’t say that, anyway,” before abruptly ending the story and moving on.
Mr. Biden made the mistake on Philadelphia-based WURD radio as he attempted to deliver a speech he had rehearsed before, namely that he was proud to have served as President Barack Obama’s vice president. Earlier in the interview, he boasted about appointing the first black woman to the Supreme Court and choosing the first black woman as vice president.
The president also made a mistake earlier in the interview when he claimed that he was the first statewide elected president of Delaware. He seemed to mean that he was the first statewide elected Catholic from the state, going on to speak admiringly of John F. Kennedy, who was a Catholic.
Mr. Biden and his top aides have said the president’s activities in the coming days are part of a series of campaign efforts designed to prove to voters, donors and activists that the president’s debate debacle was nothing more than what he called “a bad night.”
The president’s every appearance has come under scrutiny since he appeared listless and distracted during the debate against former President Donald J. Trump last Thursday, a performance that sparked a wave of anxiety among Democrats about whether he was too old to remain the party’s nominee.
The president is scheduled to speak with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday after a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin. On Sunday, he is scheduled to attend a campaign event in Philadelphia.
On Thursday, the president used radio interviews to try to allay concerns about the debate among members of the black community.
During Mr. Biden’s appearance on “The Earl Ingram Show,” which is aimed at black listeners in Wisconsin but also airs nationwide, Mr. Ingram opened his program by asking the president to “talk about some of the accomplishments that we may or may not know about on your record.”
Despite the relaxed nature of the interview, the president spoke haltingly at times, delivering his answers quickly. Asked about the importance of the vote, Mr. Biden answered the question of why the Supreme Court mattered this week, regarding Mr. Trump’s immunity.
“There needs to be somebody, somebody who makes sure that – the Supreme Court just made a decision that threatens the American principle that we don’t have kings in America,” he said. “No one is above the law.”
“This is where we’ve always given Donald Trump the executive power to use a system, but our founders never envisioned that because of the people he appointed to the court,” he said, appearing to stutter several times, a condition he’s struggled with since childhood. “It’s just presidential immunity. He can say I did this in my capacity as a leader, maybe it was wrong, but I did it. But it’s going to stand, because I … and this is the same guy who says he wants revenge.”
The president’s answers to Mr. Ingram’s four questions were lengthy, mostly listing his accomplishments in office and criticizing Mr. Trump. But during the 17-minute interview, he occasionally stopped in mid-answer.
In his response about the importance of the vote, he began talking about Mr. Trump’s proposal to raise tariffs on all Chinese goods imported into the United States. He stopped mid-answer, apologizing for taking too long.
“He wants a 10 percent tariff on everything imported into the United States,” he said, “which experts say will raise taxes on average Americans by $2,500, while he gives a $5 trillion tax cut next time around to everybody who earns… I don’t want to get too involved in that anyway, really.”
Mr. Biden also refrained from using an epithet to describe Mr. Trump during a response in which he spoke about his son Beau, who died of brain cancer after serving a year in Iraq. Mr. Biden blamed his death on his proximity to so-called waste pits, where trash was dumped.
“He was very healthy, he came back with stage 4 glioblastoma — more brain damage in this war than in any other war — and he died,” Biden said. “I’ll be damned if I let this SO — sorry — this president, talk about veterans the way he did.”
At the end of the interview with Mr. Ingram, the president once again acknowledged his poor performance in the debate.
“The fact is I made a mistake,” he said.
News Source : www.nytimes.com
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