“I’m going to win,” says Joe Biden

(Washington) “I’m running and I’m going to win again,” Joe Biden said in a highly offensive speech Friday in Wisconsin, a key state in the Great Lakes region, before a high-stakes interview seen as a test of his mental alertness.

“There are people who don’t care about your vote” in the primaries, which he won by a landslide, the American president told the audience.

“They’re trying to push me out. Let me say this very clearly: I’m still in the race” for the White House, he insisted in front of a thousand supporters, according to his campaign team.

The 81-year-old Democrat has been fighting for his political survival since a failed debate on June 27 against his 78-year-old Republican predecessor, in which he appeared confused and even lost at times.

It was a completely different Joe Biden on Friday, combative and determined, but also helped by prompters, who tried to respond head-on to concerns about his age.

“You think I’m too old to beat Donald Trump?” he asked, to which the audience responded with a resounding “No!”

“Dosage”

The Democrat, who left the stage to the sound of a song titled “I won’t back down [Je ne me défilerai pas] “, also pointed out the inconsistencies of his rival, whose age and mental acuity are not the subject of such intense attention.

“If you’re wondering if Trump is in his right mind, have you ever heard how he explained the Fourth of July when he was president?” asked Joe Biden, referring to American independence, which was proclaimed on July 4, 1776.

He reported that his Republican opponent had explained the victory in the War of Independence by the British taking control of airports, which obviously did not exist at that time.

“It’s true, he’s a completely stable genius,” the American president said ironically, repeating an expression that his rival had used to praise his own intelligence.

Behind him in the audience, clearly visible during the television broadcast, a spectator carried a sign reading: “Pass the torch, Joe.”

One of Donald Trump’s closest advisers, Jason Miller, responded ironically on X to this particularly energetic performance: “Your team should have used the same dosage [de médicaments] during the debate.”

High Risk Interview

It remains to be seen whether Biden will display the same combativeness in a high-stakes interview with ABC, the first excerpt of which will be shown at 6:30 p.m. ET, and the full interview at 8:30 p.m. ET.

The exercise will be very different, since the American president will speak without a safety net, alone facing George Stephanopoulos, a journalist and a former close adviser to Democratic President Bill Clinton.

The Democratic candidate still has a lot to do to erase the disastrous impression left by his debate against Donald Trump, whose immediate consequences he has not at all managed: a wave of calls for his withdrawal in the press and a surge in concerns about his mental health within his party.

Earlier this week, one of the most influential Democratic voices, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, considered it “essential” that Joe Biden do one or even two high-profile interviews.

“In the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully assess whether he remains our best hope for defeating Donald Trump,” Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey wrote in a statement, two days after listening to the president make his case to a group of governors.

In any case, there is no desire to give up on the part of Joe Biden’s campaign team.

On Friday, she released an intense battle plan for July, including a flurry of television spots and trips to all key states, including the southwest during the Republican convention (July 15-18).

Joe Biden is also due to host a summit of NATO leaders next week, and will hold a press conference on Thursday, another highly anticipated exercise.