(Headline USA) ABC News’s George Stephanopolous issued an apology this week after he admitted in a recording that President Joe Biden was not fit to serve another presidential term, Axios reported.
The former Bill Clinton aide was filmed making the comment to a passerby in midtown Manhattan just days after his interview with the 81-year-old president.
“I don’t think he can serve four more years,” Stephanopolous told the person.
Stephanopolous quickly backtracked after the video went public, claiming he should never have answered the passerby’s question. However, he did not disavow his assertion that Biden isn’t fit to serve.
“Earlier today I responded to a question from a passerby. I shouldn’t have,” he said.
ABC News also tried to distance itself from Stephanopolous’s apparent blunder, saying in a separate statement, “George expressed his own point of view and not the position of ABC News.”
Stephanopolous interviewed Biden last Friday in a highly anticipated sit-down with the president—Biden’s first since his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump.
Stephanopolous grilled Biden on whether he had the physical and mental capacity to serve another four years, and whether he planned to consider Democratic demands for him to drop out of the 2024 race.
Biden repeatedly insisted that he is not going anywhere, and told Stephanopolous that the only way he’d consider abandoning his reelection bid is if the “Lord almighty” told him to.
Biden also dismissed his embarrassing debate performance, calling it a “bad night” and claiming he had been “exhausted” and “sick” with a “bad cold.”
When Stephanopolous asked if Biden would submit to a cognitive exam to ease Americans’ concerns about his mental capacity, Biden replied, “Look, I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day, I’ve had tests. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, I’m running the world. And that’s not—it sounds like hyperbole, but we are the central nation of the world.”
