President Joe Biden faces a make-or-break moment on ABC tonight, as he sits down with George Stephanopoulos for his first prime time interview since the debate with Donald Trump that sent shockwaves through Democratic circles, with supporters fearing the president looked old and, at times, lost.
“Tonight’s interview could actually be more important” than the first debate, said pollster and political strategist Frank Luntz in an interview Friday morning on CNBC’sSquawk Box.“If he doesn’t come across strong, focused, and most importantly, (focused) on the future,” Luntz said, it could be incredibly damaging to the president’s intentions to stay in the 2024 race.
ABC is making the most of the interview, with plans to air an excerpt on Friday night’sWorld News Tonight with David Muir,and the full recorded interview airing at 8 p.m. ET. Stephanopoulos will record the interview earlier in the day on the campaign trail with Biden in Wisconsin.
For Stephanopoulos, the expectations are high: he’s got to press Biden and give him a tough interview. “If he doesn’t,” Luntz said, “he’s going to be condemned by everyone, so he’s got a lot of pressure on him.”
Luntz believes the second and final scheduled debate between Biden and Trump won’t happen, with the Trump campaign having little incentive to give the president a second chance.
But Trump himself has challenged Biden to a second debate, although with a new set of rules. "This time," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, "no holds barred – An all on discussion, with just the two of us on stage, talking about the future of our Country.”
“The ratings were massive for the First Debate, record setting, in fact,” Trump continued, “but this one, because of the format, would blow everything away! Likewise it would be yet another test for me. What a great evening it would be, just the two of us, one on one, in a good, old fashioned Debate, the way they used to be. ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!!!”
Former CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter says the Biden campaign—and the White House—have “raised the stakes” for the ABC interview, “as if it was not already important enough,” with Biden’s “presidency on the line.”
In an interview Friday on CNN, Stelter, a special correspondent forVanity Fair,said “astoundingly, the White House is almost portraying this interview as a cognitive test, like it’s some kind of televised doctor’s appointment” for the president—a high stakes opportunity to prove that what people saw in the first debate was just the product of one bad night.