- President Joe Biden said only God could convince him to drop out of the 2024 race.
- Biden made frequent provocative statements during a highly anticipated interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos.
- The president is still trying to calm his nerves after his disastrous performance in the debate.
President Joe Biden on Friday did not respond to the growing number of members of Congress and major donors who have called on him to step down. He said only a higher power could make him change course.
“If the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I could do it,” Biden told ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos when asked if he would step down if he was no longer the best Democrat to beat former President Donald Trump.
Biden displayed his characteristic stubbornness during his 22-minute interview with Stephanopoulos. The interview was intended to calm nervous Democrats, some of whom have been pushing for Biden to step down after his disastrous debate last week.
The president has famously invoked the phrase “Judge me by the alternative, not by the Almighty” to explain how commentators should view his candidacy. But on Friday, Biden again suggested that only divine intervention could lead him to step down.
“Listen, I mean if the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I would get out of the race,” Biden said at another point. “The Lord Almighty is not coming down.”
At that point, Stephanopoulos tried to ask Biden what the president’s reaction would be if Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer or House Minority Leader Hakeem asked the president to step down. Biden made it clear that he thought that would never happen and that the assumption was unwarranted.
“I agree that the Lord Almighty is not coming down,” Stephanopoulos said. “But if your allies, your friends and allies in the Democratic Party in the House and the Senate are telling you reliably that they are afraid that you will lose the House and the Senate if you remain in power, what are you going to do?”
Faced with a much more earthly consideration, Biden simply refused to consider the possibility.
“I’m not going to answer that question,” he said. “That’s not going to happen.”
