Photo: Chip Somodevilla Getty Images via Agence France-Presse Framed by the lights of television cameras, U.S. President Joe Biden addresses governors across the country at an event in February 2024.
Aurélia End – Agence France-Presse and Sébastien Blanc – Agence France-Presse
Published at 12:27 p.m. Updated at 2:45 p.m.
- United States
A meeting, a high-risk interview, an aggressive campaign program… Joe Biden continued to fight for his political survival on Friday.
Questioned by away by journalists to find out if he was still capable of beating Donald Trump in November, the 81-year-old Democrat simply said “Yes,” before flying to Wisconsin, a state that will be decisive in the election.
The American president knows that from now on every gesture, every intonation counts to reassure his supporters, whose anxiety has not subsided since his completely failed debate on June 27 against his Republican predecessor.
“We will turn the page, we will move forward,” promised White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre.< /p>
Since that televised duel, Americans have not seen Joe Biden speak freely without a teleprompter and over an extended time period.
He will have the opportunity to do so on Friday, in an interview with a star journalist and presenter from ABC, George Stephanopoulos, which will be recorded in Wisconsin.
Read also
- Joe Biden has entered a turbulent zone
- “I have no intention of leaving,” says Joe Biden
- Biden fights to keep candidacy alive
Wisconsin
Joe Biden will also have to demonstrate his energy during the meeting planned for Madison, Wisconsin, in this state which he won by only 20,682 votes against Donald Trump in 2020.
“I have no intention of leaving,” he assured Thursday during Independence Day.
His campaign team is increasing its ardor. She published an intense battle plan for the month of July on Friday, including a blitz of television spots, trips to all key states, and particularly to the southwest of the country during the Republican convention (July 15 to 18).
Joe Biden is also due to host a summit of NATO leaders next week, and will give a press conference on this occasion, again an exercise highly anticipated.
Donald Trump chose Thursday to shoot his arrows against Vice-President Kamala Harris, until now a running mate with unfailing loyalty, but who would obviously be a potential candidate in the event of the withdrawal of the American president.
“With her insatiable lust for power, Kamala did everything possible to hide the condition of “Rogue Joe” from the American people,” wrote a campaign spokesperson for the 78-year-old Republican billionaire.
Proof that Friday's interview is crucial, the television channel has disrupted its broadcast schedule.
ABC initially planned to show excerpts on Friday, then Saturday, for a full broadcast on Sunday.
Special broadcast
But it is finally from Friday evening, at 8:00 p.m. local (midnight GMT) that viewers will be able to see the interview in its entirety, as part of a broadcast special.
Joe Biden will face journalist George Stephanopoulos, who knows the ins and outs of political communication like no other, having worked closely with former Democratic President Bill Clinton, on the campaign trail and in the White House.
If he comes out of this exercise honorably, the American president will not be saved, but if he proves as hesitant and confused as he faced his Republican rival last week, his candidacy to a second term will hang by a thread.
Disturbing revelations are now one after the other in the American press.
The Axios site said on Friday that Joe Biden sometimes struggles to find the names of people he has known for a long time.
Joe Biden's teams have swept away this information which has, until now, always been provided anonymously, while attacking the media and in particular their current bête noire, the New York Times.
“Imagine for a second that the New York Times attacked Trump's fascism with as much vigor as the age of Biden,” a supporter of the American president wrote on X, in a message then relayed by an executive of his campaign team.
The editorial board of the prestigious daily called on Joe Biden to withdraw from the race for the White House.