READ IT: Tran­script Of Biden’s First TV Inter­view After His Poor Debate Per­for­mance

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden sought to assuage con­cerns about his health fol­low­ing a rick­ety debate per­for­mance with an inter­view Fri­day on ABC News.
The 81-year-old, who is seek­ing to reas­sure sup­port­ers that are call­ing on him to step aside in his 2024 re-elec­tion cam­paign in grow­ing num­bers, spoke to “This Week” anchor and for­mer Clin­ton flack George Stephanopou­los in Wis­con­sin for rough­ly 22 min­utes.
[embed­ded con­tent]
Dur­ing the con­ver­sa­tion, Biden refused to com­mit to hav­ing an inde­pen­dent med­ical eval­u­a­tion of his neu­ro­log­i­cal and cog­ni­tive func­tions. He also insist­ed that the only way he will end his re-elec­tion cam­paign is “if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells” him to quit.
The pres­i­dent addi­tion­al­ly made a false claim about for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump in try­ing to explain away his poor debate per­for­mance. And Biden argued that polls show­ing him down are off the mark while insist­ing no one is “more qual­i­fied to be pres­i­dent … than me.”

Below is ABC’s tran­script of Biden’s con­ver­sa …