The New Yorker is out with a lengthy profile/interview of President Biden, and those looking for hints that the 81-year-old is harboring doubts about his run for reelection won't find any. "The world is riven by the question of whether he is up to a second term," writes Evan Osnos, "but he projects a defiant belief in himself and his ability to persuade Americans to join him." Some highlights:
- "Well, first of all, remember, in 2020, you guys told me how I wasn't going to win? And then you told me in 2022 how it was going to be this red wave? ... And in 2023 you told me we're going to get our ass kicked again?" After a pause he adds, "In 2024, I think you're going to see the same thing."
- In regard to Biden's age, a big concern of voters, Osnos writes that Biden had for decades "a springy, mischievous energy." However, "he is a more solemn figure now. His voice is thin and clotted, and his gestures have slowed, but, in our conversation, his mind seemed unchanged." Osnos writes that Biden didn't mess up any names or dates over the course of their interview.
- When Osnos asks if it's risky for Biden to suggest that only he can defeat Trump, the president pushes back. "I'm the only one who has ever beat him," he says. "And I'll beat him again." He also suggests it's something of a calling: "I'd ask a rhetorical question. If you thought you were best positioned to beat someone who, if they won, would change the nature of America, what would you do?"
- Biden also warned about the aftermath of a Trump loss. "Losers who are losers are never graceful," he says. "I just think that he'll do anything to try to win. If—and when—I win, I think he'll contest it. No matter what the result is."
Read the
full story, in which Osnos writes that Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 results was "clearly personal" to Biden. (More
President Biden 2024 stories.)
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