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President Joe Biden would reevaluate his decision to stay in the presidential race if doctors told him he had a medical issue, he said in an interview with BET News.
“If I had some medical condition that emerged,” Biden said, when asked if there was anything that would make him reconsider. “If doctors came to me and said, ‘You got this problem, that problem.’”
Biden’s comments, made Tuesday, marked the first time Biden opened the door to a theoretical medical condition forcing him from the presidential race. In an interview with ABC News a week after the disastrous debate, he defiantly insisted that only the “Lord Almighty” could get him to drop out of the race. Last week, he laid out a different scenario, saying during a press conference that he would step aside only if aides showed him proof he couldn’t win in November.
Biden has resisted growing calls from Democrats to abandon his reelection bid following the debate last month that raised fresh questions about his age and mental acuity.
He has repeatedly defended himself since then by pointing to his doctors’ opinions that he remains up for the job. Kevin O’Connor, the White House physician, wrote in February following an annual physical that Biden is a “healthy, active, robust, 81-year-old male who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.”
That physical included a neurological evaluation, the White House later confirmed.
In a clip of the BET interview released on Wednesday, Biden again dismissed his debate performance as a one-off, calling it a “serious mistake.” And while he implied that he initially planned to only be a one-term president, Biden said he changed his mind after watching the nation become increasingly divided.
“I said I was going to be a transitional candidate, and I thought I’d be able to move on from this, pass it on to someone else,” he told BET News’ Ed Gordon. “But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided. Quite frankly, I think the only thing age brings [is] a little bit of wisdom, and I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done for the country.”
There remains more to do, Biden added, “and I’m reluctant to walk away from that.”
