WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Wednesday in a Milwaukee radio interview that he “made a mistake” during the debate with former President Donald Trump last week — marking some of the president’s first public comments since the event.
“I had a bad night,” Biden told Milwaukee radio host Earl Ingram in a pre-recorded interview scheduled to air Thursday morning. “And the fact is, I made a mistake. I made a mistake. It’s 90 minutes on stage, look what I’ve done in 3.5 years.”
The comments, made during an interview with Ingram on Wednesday, were among the president’s first after a volatile debate that highlighted questions about Biden’s age and led some Democrats to call for him to be replaced at the top of the ticket. Biden has said he plans to stay in the race.
About a minute of selected clips from Biden’s interview were provided to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Ingram, a longtime Biden supporter, told the Journal Sentinel he spoke with the president for 20 minutes. The full interview will air Thursday at 8 a.m. on WAUK-AM (540).
During the interview, Biden also touted his efforts to engage minority communities and highlighted his work appointing Black judges, according to the brief excerpts.
“I chose a Black woman as my vice president. I appointed the first Black woman to the Supreme Court,” Biden said. “I appointed more Black justices, more Black women to the Supreme Court than all the other presidents in American history combined.”
He attacked Trump for recent comments the presumptive Republican nominee made about black workers.
“I’m sorry to get so upset,” Biden said. “But he’s just… he’s terrible in the community, and he has about as much interest and concern for black and minority communities as the man on the moon.”
Biden is expected to travel to Madison on Friday.
The interview was recorded on the same day that Biden met with 24 Democratic governors from across the country as he sought to ease concerns within the party about his place at the top of the ticket. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers was the only Democratic governor to miss the meeting.
“(Evers) did not attend the meeting because he is focused on moving forward and winning Wisconsin,” Evers spokeswoman Britt Cudaback wrote on X. “He supports President Biden — his comments in support of the president over the past week speak for themselves, and he looks forward to campaigning with the president on Friday.”
Several governors indicated after the meeting that they supported Biden.
“He’s been supported through the entire COVID pandemic, through the entire recovery period, through all the things that have happened,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told reporters. “The governors support him.”
“The number one priority is to get to victory in November,” Walz added. “And that’s the president’s number one priority. So that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Milwaukee is scheduled to host the Republican National Convention starting July 15.
Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed from Milwaukee.
News Source : www.jsonline.com
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