Less than one week after sitting for an exclusive, hard-hitting interview with President Joe Biden, ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos offered an unfiltered opinion about the president’s health after being cornered on the street by an individual who tipped off TMZ.

The anchor appeared to be on a stroll down a New York sidewalk, headphones on, fiddling with his phone when a cameraman approached him and asked for his thoughts about whether Biden should step down. On Friday Stephanopoulos scored an exclusive interview with the 81-year-old president where he challenged Biden to sit for an independent, third-party cognitive fitness test. Biden declined to do so.

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The refusal must have been a warning sign for Stephanopoulos, who told the TMZ flak that America will be in deep trouble if President Biden is reelected. “I don’t think he can serve four more years,” he said off-camera before quickly walking away.

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BREAKING: ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos caught on video saying he doesn’t think Biden can serve another 4 years after his interview.

Stephanopoulos was intercepted in midtown Manhattan in footage released by TMZ.

Reporter: “Do you think Biden should step down? You’ve… pic.twitter.com/58FYwrWvqg

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 10, 2024

In a statement, the former Clinton strategist sounded a remorseful tone for offering his unfiltered opinion on the embattled president. “Earlier today, I responded to a question from a passerby. I shouldn’t have,” Stephanopoulos said in a statement to TMZ. An ABC spokesperson added, “George expressed his own point of view and not the position of ABC News.”

Friday’s interview did little to quell the unrest in Democratic circles about whether President Biden remains the best candidate positioned to beat former President Donald Trump. A rash of polling since his debate has shown the Democratic incumbent losing ground in key swing states where he is often trailing outside the margin of error. On Tuesday AARP released a devastating poll showing Biden 9 points behind Trump in Wisconsin, a battleground state he won by less than 1% in 2020 and which Trump carried in 2016.

Still, Biden’s firewall has held as leading Democratic figures on Tuesday declined to join a push to force President Biden into stepping aside. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) held a private meeting where ranking members vented their frustrations, but later in the day, he joined former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), “Squad” member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and other notable Democrats in declaring that President Biden will remain the party’s nominee.

During the interview, Stephanopoulos asked the president, “Are you sure you’re being honest with yourself when you say you have the mental and physical capacity to serve another four years?” Biden asserted that he did, doubling down on Monday in a two-page public letter where he refused to step aside. He followed that up with an impromptu appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” where he sounded audibly agitated at the hosts and dared members of his own party to challenge him at the Democratic National Convention next month.

“The bottom line here is that we’re not going anywhere — I am not going anywhere,” he continued. “I had a bad night. But the fact of the matter is — if there was something that was wrong that night, it’s not like it’s one night and it goes away. That’s why I’ve been out, I’ve been testing myself.”

“Run against me. Announce for president. Challenge me at the convention,” Biden added.

(BREAKING: Famed Economist Predicts ‘1987 Style’ Stock Market Crash)

A furious and candid Parkinson’s specialist appeared on MSNBC to rip his own party for hiding President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and failing to find a better nominee until it appears too late.

Dr. Tom Pitts, who volunteered that he is a card-carrying Democrat, shocked host Tom Llamas when he pointed out the many ways in which even a medical student could diagnose that President Biden is suffering from a neurodegenerative disorder. The discussion came one day after the New York Times uncovered that a Parkinson’s specialist had quietly visited the White House on numerous occasions over the past eight months.

Comparing Biden to a regular patient of his, Dr. Pitts listed the “classic features of neurodegeneration” he’s seeing in the president.

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“Word-finding difficulties, and that’s not ‘Oh, I couldn’t find the word.’ That’s from degeneration of the word retrieval area” of the brain, he told Llamas who asked if his lifelong struggle with stuttering could be a culprit instead. “No. This is not a palatal issue or a speech discrepancy which is very different from a liminal dysfunction, actual word retrieval where you pick a similar question, or talk around the issue. Plus the rigidity, monotone voice” are all signs that President Biden’s mental acuity is in decline, Dr. Pitts said.

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Time after time, Llamas tried to pivot the conversation toward alternate theories for why the vast majority of Americans now view Biden, 81, as too old to run for reelection. He was repeatedly shut down as Dr. Pitts continued to provide scientific answers about why he sees Biden’s diagnosis as an obvious one. “Loss of arm swing, standing upward robotically. You notice when he turns it’s kind of en bloc turning, it’s not a quick turn. That’s one of the hallmarks of Parkinson’s is rigidity and bradykinesia, slow movement. And he has that hallmark, especially with the low voice” presented during the debate, Pitts cited.

“He said that was a cold. Hypophonia, small, monotone voice over time is a hallmark of Parkinson’s. I could have diagnosed him from across the mall,” he quipped.

When it became clear to Llamas that he wasn’t going to shift Dr. Pitts away from his opinion, he turned the conversation toward why the physician was so frustrated with Democrats for what he seems to believe is dishonesty about the president’s condition.

“I’m an American before everything, and I look at it and… when I used to see Russia, the Soviet Union, North Korea, when they just make outrageous things… When North Korea can’t keep the lights on and they say ‘Oh yeah, you know, it was some faulty power thing,’ I kind of hate that kind of stuff,” said the guest.

“My own party had four years to find – you know, this was a wreck in slow motion – and they had four years to find out of 350 million Americans one person that could take the place, and here we are the day before school trying to do the homework and replace a guy who’s got a neurodegenerative disease.”

A White House briefing on Monday devolved into shouting after spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre failed to answer questions about why a Parkinson’s specialist had repeatedly visited the White House.

Jean-Pierre cited “security reasons” and the need to maintain privacy as the primary reasons for withholding specific details, a move that did little to quell the rising concerns and questions from the media. “I am telling you right now that I am not sharing or confirming names from here,” Jean-Pierre said. “It is a security reason. It doesn’t matter how hard you push me. It doesn’t matter how angry you get with me. I’m not going to confirm a name.”

The scenario at the briefing room was also marked by a moment after where Jean-Pierre, visibly overwhelmed by the aggressive questioning, seemed to be on the verge of tears, RNC Research noted on X. “To say that I’m holding information or allude to anything else is not unfair,” she said. “It’s really, really unfair. I think people who are watching and have been watching this briefing for this past week could say that we are doing our best in this briefing to provide the information that we have.”

“I will admit, I will be the first one to admit, sometimes I get it wrong.” She finished, “But I do take offense to what was just happening at the beginning of this briefing. But I do take offense to what was just happening at the beginning of this briefing. It’s not okay.”

(BREAKING: This Is The Handshake That Will Collapse The Western Economy)

One of the most closely watched swing states is now heavily trending toward former President Donald Trump, a reminder that Biden’s grasp in the race is quickly slipping away.

Wisconsin, the midwestern battleground narrowly won by Trump in 2016 and four years later by President Biden, now appears decisively in the Republican’s corner following a new poll conducted by AARP. Elena Schneider of Politico reported on the results showing that Trump has amassed a 6% lead, far outpacing his 0.77% margin of victory as well as Biden’s 0.63% win in 2020.

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The poll gauged support among voters 50 and older, and AARP claimed the results actually showed a 9-point lead by Trump in a 52% to 43% matchup. Among Wisconsin voters of all ages, Trump’s lead narrowed to 5%. Over 1,000 likely AARP voters were polled in the days following Biden’s disastrous debate performance. The poll found that 75 percent of voters 50-plus said they watched the debate and 94 percent said they were aware of it. When asked who won, 59 percent of voters 50-plus said Trump, while 16 percent said Biden. Among all voters polled, 56 percent said Trump won the debate while 13 percent chose Biden.

Bob Ward, a partner at pollsters Fabrizio Ward, said opinions about Biden’s bad debate night are “having an impact” on his loss of support. “It’s changed this state, not dramatically, but noticeably,” he told AARP.

New AARP poll of Wisconsin, taken after debate.

Trump: 44 (+6pts)
Biden: 38
RFK: 9

Baldwin: 50 (+5)
Hovde: 45

— Elena Schneider (@ec_schneider) July 9, 2024

America’s heartland has become an epicenter of the path to 270 electoral votes this year. Democrats in Michigan have sounded the alarm bells about growing discontent among party faithful with Biden’s mental acuity as well as his disregard for the auto industry by implementing new electric vehicle mandates. After serving as a bellwether state for generations, Ohio has become firmly Republican in presidential elections. Pennsylvania is proving to be a must-win state for President Biden; if he loses it along with Wisconsin he would almost certainly lose his path to 270.

Over the weekend the embattled president conducted interviews in both states, one of which generated more negative publicity at an inopportune time. A host at Philadelphia radio station WURD was forced to resign after she admitted to accepting a list of pre-approved questions from the Biden campaign, a media effort that the president’s team later said they would terminate.

Even before his debate, President Biden was falling behind Trump in every swing state. A general election poll conducted by Bloomberg and Morning Consult found the former president and Republican frontrunner leading Biden by an average of 4.5 percent across Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina, and Arizona. The poll, which surveyed more than 4,900 voters between November 27th and December 1st, carries a margin of error of just plus or minus 1 percent.

All of these states, with the exception of North Carolina, went for President Biden three years ago.

(ALERT: Biden’s New Executive Order Will Crush The US Dollar For Good)

Former powerhouse GOP Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) has died at 89, according to members of his family who spoke with local outlet Tulsa World.

Inhofe was a celebrated figure in the establishment Republican Party of yesteryear, serving three terms in the U.S. House before winning a Senate seat in the 1994 landslide led by Newt Gingrich and the Republicans’ Contract with America media blitz. He served nearly 30 years in that role, chairing the Armed Services and Environment Committees, the latter of which he used to forcefully deny the alleged effects of climate change and push for American energy independence.

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In a statement, Oklahoma Congressman Kevin Herd (R-OK) paid tribute to his colleague of many years.

“Senator Jim Inhofe was a dear friend and mentor, a titan in Oklahoma, and a highly effective leader in DC,” said Rep. Hern according to OK’s 9 News. “Tammy and I are keeping Kay and the rest of the Inhofe family in our prayers. Jim spent his life in service to his country, both in uniform and in the halls of Congress. He will always be remembered as a fighter, especially for our military service members. Jim’s legacy of service, leadership, and faith reflect the Oklahoma Standard and the pride he held in his work. Along with the family, friends, and many Oklahomans who knew and loved him, I mourn the loss of a great man.”

Born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1934, Inhofe was a member of the Senate’s Silent Generation caucus and was carried by his family to Illinois and later Tulsa after his elementary school burned down. After high school, he was drafted into two years of service in the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1958. Shortly after returning home, Inhofe worked for his father’s insurance company before inheriting the business in 1970.

Sources told local outlets that Sen. Inhofe died peacefully after a brief struggle with an illness during the 4th of July holiday weekend. He is survived by his wife, Kay Inhofe, and three of their four children.

Mike Neal, the president and CEO of the Tulsa Regional Chamber also made a statement, saying, “The Tulsa Regional Chamber mourns the death of former U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe, who spent his entire professional career seeking to enrich the lives of Oklahomans. As a former Tulsa mayor, Congressman, and the longest-serving U.S. senator from Oklahoma, Inhofe was the consummate public servant, unafraid to advocate for his constituents, particularly in the areas of transportation, infrastructure and the armed services.”

“We are especially grateful to the former senator for several recent wins, including full funding of the Tulsa/West Tulsa Levees, a longtime priority within the Chamber’s OneVoice Regional Legislative Agenda. He also led the effort to designate U.S. Highway 412 as an interstate, and he oversaw reforms to help address the maintenance backlog of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.”

“The breadth of Senator Inhofe’s impact on Oklahoma and the members of its business community is immeasurable. We applaud his commitment to our great state and offer our condolences to Kay and his wonderful family.”

(BREAKING: Glenn Beck reveals new Biden initiative that will bankrupt America)

Whoopi Goldberg just laid down a low and rather crude bar for President Joe Biden to clear if he wants to keep her support.

Speaking on ABC’s “The View,” the iconic liberal comedian compared Biden to an invalid nursing home patient, saying even if he “pooped his pants” he would still fare better in the world’s most demanding job than his opponent.

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“I’m just going to have my two cents because I wasn’t here on the day that y’all talked about it. I don’t care if he’s pooped his pants. I don’t care if he can’t put a sentence together. Show me he can’t do the job, and then I’ll say, okay, maybe it’s time to go,” Goldberg said regarding the recent media spotlight on Biden’s mental acuity.

The American Tribune reported on the host’s remarks where she went on to say she also experiences her own “poopy days.”

“Now, he had a bad night the first time that he went out and debated with Kamala Harris, and everybody wanted him to quit that and say, ‘You can’t talk to women like this. Are you doing this wrong? You’re doing that wrong.’ He came back and said, ‘You know what? I got it’ and gave four years. So, yeah, I have poopy days all the time, all that I step in so much poo you can’t even imagine.”

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With former President Donald Trump rising in the polls, Goldberg and her co-hosts have often pontificated about what the Republican would do to destroy American democracy if he returns to the White House. Goldberg, 68, accepted the elderly president’s suggestion that his debate was simply a “bad night” and not emblematic of deeper cognitive troubles. However, were he to suffer a similarly bad second debate in September, Goldberg said she would join other national Democrats in calling for Biden to step aside.

“Now, I’m not running the world, but I don’t know anybody who doesn’t step in stuff at some point. So I’m just simply saying there are two debates, and if he can’t do what he needs to do for the second debate, I’ll join any crew that says, ‘Get rid of him.’ But loyalty to me, if you are doing the job, I might not like everything you’re doing. I don’t like it all, but I’m going to stand behind you, like those guys stand behind the guy who should have been the person people were talking about saying, Yeah, Biden had a bad day, but this guy couldn’t tell the truth if it split his lip,” Goldberg stated, according to the Tribune.

Later on, she referenced failed attempts by anti-Trump coalitions to try and keep the Republican off the ballot in dozens of states under the Constitution’s insurrectionist clause. As with Trump, Goldberg said, Biden was selected by the vast majority of Democrats in state primaries, and it would disenfranchise them to bail on the party’s nominee now.

“But the question now is, because lots of Democrats are coming out saying, you know, find somebody else. But when we tried to do that with DT, that’s my new way of just describing when we said, listen, he shouldn’t be on the ballot, everybody said, no, no, no, he was. The people chose him. We can’t take him off the ballot. Well, I don’t understand why anybody thinks it’s going to be any easier to take Biden off the ballot?” she said.

On Monday the New York Times reported that a Parkinson’s expert had visited the White House numerous times over the past eight months, putting the White House on the defensive and leading to shouting matches with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a regular briefing.

(Trump Sounds The Alarm On The US Currency – PREPARE NOW)

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), known as one of the most pugnacious progressives in the U.S. House, has suddenly fallen in line behind President Joe Biden just as deep divisions within the Democratic Party threaten its chances of putting forward a strong presidential nominee.

Speaking with reporters Monday evening, the Bronx native toed the line when commenting on recent concerns about the president’s health and mental acuity, saying she intends to support him as the nominee. She “spoke to the president over the weekend,” AOC told a scrum outside the Capitol.

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“I have spoken with him extensively. He made clear then and he has made clear since that he is in this race. The matter is closed. He had reiterated that this morning. He has reiterated that to the public. Joe Biden is our nominee. He is not leaving this race. He is our nominee and I support him,” she said forcefully before trying to turn the tables on Trump.

“What I think is critically important right now is that we focus on what it takes to win in November, because he is running against Donald Trump, who is a man with 34 felony convictions that has committed 34 felony crimes, and not a single Republican has asked for Donald Trump to not be the nominee. I’m here to win on this democracy, I’m here to win in November, and what’s critically important is what I believe the president needs to do… in order to make sure that we win in November… that is making sure that we pivot and working and increasingly commit to the issues that are critically important to working people across this country.

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After nearly a blistering two weeks of negative feedback following his disastrous debate performance, President Biden on Tuesday appeared to have shored up his exposed flank, keeping Democrats and especially progressives in line who fear forcing him out of the race would only set up President Trump for a decisive win. Six House Democrats have called on the party to begin searching for a new nominee, none of which count themselves among the ultra-liberal “Squad” caucus.

AOC’s request that the media put Biden’s debate in the rearview mirror came one day after the president released a two-page letter telling Democrats much the same.

“Now that you have returned from the July 4th recess, I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump,” Biden wrote. “I have had extensive conversations with the leadership of the party, elected officials, rank and file members, and most importantly, Democratic voters over these past 10 days or so. I have heard the concerns that people have – their good faith fears and worries about what is at stake in this election. I am not blind to them.”

Democratic advisors have concocted a hopeful strategy to launch a “blitz primary” in the event that President Joe Biden is forced to step aside in the coming days, and it involves several high-profile figures.

In a memo shared with Semafor, advisors to former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton outlined how the Democratic Party may parse its best alternative nominees if the pressure on Biden becomes too great to forge ahead as he has promised. Among its lengthy list of requirements: candidates would be given just a few days to throw their hats in the ring; must promise to refrain from attacking one another; and would seek votes from pledged Democratic delegates rather than repeating divisive and expensive state primary elections.

The two authors write optimistically about how Biden’s stepping down would make him a “modern-day George Washington” in the eyes of voters and leave the country “captivated” on the Democratic contest, Semafor added.

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“We can limp to shameful, avoidable democracy-ending defeat. Or Democrats can make this Our Finest Hour. While we hope for help from Lord Almighty, the Lord helps those who help themselves,” the memo states, alluding to Biden’s recent interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos in which he said only the “Lord Almighty” could force him from the race. “We need to act. Now.”

Other elements of the “blitz” primary would be a number of high-profile forums moderated by cultural icons including former first lady Michelle Obama, Oprah, superstar singer Taylor Swift, and others who have not been privy to the plan’s development, let alone agreed to participate. After a string of public appearances, the candidates would then head to the Democratic National Convention in mid-August where delegates would use a rank-choice voting system to select the party’s nominee.

Asked for his reaction, President Biden’s campaign sent a statement referring to his earlier refusal to drop out of the race. “I’m not letting one 90-minute debate wipe out three and a half years of work. I’m staying in the race, and I will beat Donald Trump,” he said in Wisconsin last week. The spokesperson pointed to aggressive fundraising in the days following the debate, including receipts from $38 million in donations.

Still, the Democratic Party’s open fissures come at the worst possible time. President Biden is suffering from his lowest approval rating on record, according to the nonpartisan FiveThirtyEight tracker, and even liberal media outlets like CNN are debunking Biden’s notion that polls are not capturing the depth of his support. Top Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate met privately over the weekend to discuss how and whether to approach the 81-year-old about exiting the race.

In a show of defiance, President Biden sat for an interview with ABC News where he chalked his poor debate performance up to a “bad night,” poor sleep, and a persistent cold that got the better of him. He refused to answer a question from reporter George Stephanopoulos about whether he would agree to take an independent third-party cognitive test to assess his mental acuity. The president said much the same during an impromptu call-in interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday.

“That’s why I’ve been out, testing myself, testing everywhere I go, going out and making the case. The night of that debate I was out until 2 o’clock in the morning. It drives me nuts people talking about this!” Biden exclaimed. “The bottom line here is that we’re not going anywhere — I am not going anywhere,” he continued. “I had a bad night. But the fact of the matter is — if there was something that was wrong that night, it’s not like it’s one night and it goes away. That’s why I’ve been out, I’ve been testing myself.”

(BREAKING: Glenn Beck reveals new Biden initiative that will bankrupt America)

The top election forecaster at CNN brutally fact-checked President Joe Biden after he claimed that current polls are underestimating his general support in key swing states and among the general public.

Analyst Harry Enten told viewers Monday that the embattled Democrat has never been in a worse position against former President Donald Trump. His rival’s lead grew following a disastrous debate on June 27th, and to make matters worse, Biden’s nationwide approval rating has sunk to its lowest level on record, according to FiveThirtyEight.

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Pointing out where polls sit today versus this time four years ago, Enten laid out the cold math stacking the odds against Biden. “Right now Trump leads in an aggregate of national polls by about 3 percentage points. If you go back four years ago at this point, Joe Biden was ahead by 9 points. This right now doesn’t look anything like what we saw four years ago,” he told viewers.

Going further, Enten dug into the numbers to see what then-candidate Biden’s worst position against Trump was in 2020. “He was ahead by 4 points which basically matched what he ended up beating Donald Trump by in the national popular vote,” he added.

“This 3-point position is Donald Trump’s best position versus Joe Biden whether you include the polls this year or whether you include the polls last cycle. The idea that the polls underestimated Joe Biden last time around simply does not hold any water.”

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In 2022, a midterm that ended up underperforming for Republicans, Enten pointed out that Republicans still under-polled estimates by 1%, meaning the GOP has been the secret benefactor of polling in the Biden era. Four years ago, “Trump actually did better in the results than he did in his July polls,” Enten noted, another reminder that MAGA voters are hard to locate with traditional polling. Observers have theorized that many Trump supporters simply don’t trust pollsters or the media to accurately report their findings, leading them to avoid participating in surveys altogether.

“Whether it be a Joe Biden matchup, whether it be against Hillary Clinton, whether it be in the midterms – at least in the national polling – that doesn’t show Donald Trump in his strongest position simply put is not true,” said Enten. “If anything, the polls have underestimated Republicans during the Trump era.”

Biden, 81, has been in damage control mode since the debate, batting away questions about whether he is the strongest candidate to keep the White House and dismissing calls that he end his campaign. On Monday an audibly agitated Biden appeared on MSNBC where he chafed at a host’s welcome message referring to him as the party’s “presumptive nominee.” He aggressively pushed back on questions about his cognitive ability in a Friday crisis interview with ABC News though declined to participate in an independent third-party test.

Shortly before his Monday interview, the president released a lengthy public letter calling on Democrats to “come together” behind his candidacy and “defeat Donald Trump.” His posturing came hours after top Democrats in the U.S. House met to air grievances and fears about whether Biden’s leading of the national ticket would cost his party opportunities in the Senate and House.

(Trump Sounds The Alarm On The US Currency – PREPARE NOW)

A visibly agitated President Joe Biden arrived on MSNBC Monday Morning for a last-minute interview, batting away questions from the hosts about his ability to remain in the race and ripping fellow Democratic leaders for convening a strategy of how to force him out.

Things got off to a poor start when Biden, speaking by phone, was welcomed on as the Democratic Party’s “presumptive nominee” by “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski. “I’m more than presumptive, I’m gonna be the Democratic nominee,” Biden immediately said during his crisis appearance.

VOTE NOW: Do you blame BIDEN or TRUMP for the crashing economy?

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Brzezinski then asked whether he had been tested “for any age-related illnesses, pre-Parkinson’s or anything like that, that might explain having a night like that where you couldn’t finish sentences,” a follow-up to questions posed to Biden during a pivotal Friday evening interview. Biden declined to answer a question from ABC reporter George Stephanopoulos whether he would agree to undergo a cognitive fitness test by an independent third party.

Biden chuckled before replying caustically, “Look, I had… I was feeling so badly before the debate when I came back they tested me for… I thought maybe I had Covid, maybe an infection or something. I was cleared. Look, I had a bad night, but the fact of the matter is, let me put it this way: if there was something that was wrong that night, it’s not like it’s one night it goes away.

“That’s why I’ve been out, testing myself, testing everywhere I go, going out and making the case. The night of that debate I was out until 2 o’clock in the morning. It drives me nuts people talking about this!” Biden exclaimed, repeating his earlier reason for refusing a cognitive debate.

“The bottom line here is that we’re not going anywhere — I am not going anywhere,” he continued. “I had a bad night. But the fact of the matter is — if there was something that was wrong that night, it’s not like it’s one night and it goes away. That’s why I’ve been out, I’ve been testing myself.”

“Run against me. Announce for president. Challenge me at the convention,” Biden added.

WATCH:

Biden, 81, has rebuffed calls from liberal media figures and other leaders in his own party to step aside before the Democratic Convention in August. Shortly before his interview, the president released an open letter to top Democrats urging them to “come together” and unify behind his nomination to “defeat Donald Trump.”

“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end. We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump. We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election. Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us,” Biden wrote in the letter.

President Joe Biden, now in his second week of withering criticism following a disastrous first debate, just publicly confirmed his plans for the remainder of the election in a sternly worded letter to top Democrats.

A copy of the two-page letter, posted on X, exposed a window into Biden’s thinking as he pushes back against other party leaders who fear he is jeopardizing not only their chances of keeping the White House but preserving a Senate majority and winning back the U.S. House as well. The embattled president rebuffed calls to step aside, saying it is time for Democrats to “come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.”

VOTE NOW: Do you blame BIDEN or TRUMP for the crashing economy?

“Now that you have returned from the July 4th recess, I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump,” Biden wrote. “I have had extensive conversations with the leadership of the party, elected officials, rank and file members, and most importantly, Democratic voters over these past 10 days or so. I have heard the concerns that people have – their good faith fears and worries about what is at stake in this election. I am not blind to them.”

Continuing on, President Biden confirmed he would not be dropping out of the race and cited strong electoral wins in state Democratic primaries as evidence that the party’s grassroots stands behind him as the nominee.

“I can respond to all this by saying clearly and unequivocally: I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024. We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively. I received over 14 million votes, 87% of the votes cast across the entire nominating process. I have nearly 3,900 delegates, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin. This was a process open to anyone who wanted to run. Only three people chose to challenge me. One fared so badly that he left the primaries to run as an independent. Another attacked me for being too old and was soundly defeated. The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the nominee of the party.”

“Do we now just say this process didn’t matter? That the voters don’t have a say?”

This morning, I sent a letter to my fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill. In it, I shared my thoughts about this moment in our campaign.

It’s time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/ABtAaJrr0n

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 8, 2024

Biden followed up that letter with a Monday morning appearance on MSNBC where he warned Democrats against trying to force his hand. “The bottom line here is that we’re not going anywhere — I am not going anywhere,” he said.

“I had a bad night,” he said of his debate. “But the fact of the matter is — if there was something that was wrong that night, it’s not like it’s one night and it goes away. That’s why I’ve been out, I’ve been testing myself.”

“Run against me. Announce for president. Challenge me at the convention,” Biden added.

The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end. We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump. We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election. Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us.”

On Sunday the New York Times reported that ranking House Democrats, convened by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), met privately to air grievances about President Biden’s refusal to step aside.

(BREAKING: This Is The Handshake That Will Collapse The Western Economy)