Crisis? What Crisis? Biden Rejects Democratic Pessimism. - The New York Times

After last week’s devastating debate performance, the president’s prime-time interview with ABC News was an exercise in not just damage control but reality control. By Peter Baker Peter Baker has covered the past five presidents. All sounds fine in President Biden’s world. That devastating debate? Just a bad night. Those dismal poll numbers? Simply inaccurate. The gloomy election predictions? The same old doomsayers, wrong again. The Democrats who want him to drop out? No one has told him that. For Mr. Biden, the crisis seen by so many Democrats who are not on his payroll — and by some who are — is nothing more than another bump in the road, another obstacle to overcome as he always has. He does not agree that he is slipping as he ages. He does not accept that he is losing to former President Donald J. Trump. He does not believe much of his own party wants him to step aside. His prime-time interview that aired on ABC News on Friday night was an exercise not just in damage control but i

After last week’s devastating debate performance, the president’s prime-time interview with ABC News was an exercise in not just damage control but reality control. By Peter Baker Peter Baker has covered the past five presidents. All sounds fine in President Biden’s world. That devastating debate? Just a bad night. Those dismal poll numbers? Simply inaccurate. The gloomy election predictions? The same old doomsayers, wrong again. The Democrats who want him to drop out? No one has told him that. For Mr. Biden, the crisis seen by so many Democrats who are not on his payroll — and by some who are