Joe Biden interview: Is 'not as bad as they expected' enough to save his candidacy?

Ideally, what politicians say should be more important than how they say it.

That wasn't true Friday, when President Joe Biden sat for an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News.

"There are no cuts, no edits," Stephanopoulos said. "We have not touched it."

Indeed, Stephanopoulos conducted a tough but fair interview, not letting Biden off the hook on questions of age and capability, but not pouncing on his answers, either, even when Biden left him room to.

It was perhaps the biggest media moment since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by former President Donald Trump's followers, in an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

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Why was Biden's ABC interview so important?

That's because it was Biden's first interview since his weak performance in a debate with Trump on June 27, in which he at times — most times, in truth — appeared slow on the uptake, confused, even freezing up at one point. Trump unloaded a truckload of lies that left plenty of room for Biden to debunk them, but Biden did not seem up to the task.

"I just had a bad night. I don't know why," Biden told Stephanopoulos on Friday.

This interview was make or break for Biden, in other words.

Or was it?

It was hugely important — and at times difficult — television. How much it will matter is anyone's guess. But it definitely sounds as if the media are ready and eager to write Biden's political obituary. At this point, you wonder whether anything Biden can say or do will convince hungry journalists and Democratic doubters that he is fit to continue. It's also clear that at this point Biden has no plans to drop out.

"The bottom line here?" Jonathan Karl of ABC News said afterward. "There’s nothing in this interview that will force Biden out of the race. There was no major thing that will convince him or any of his allies. … But there was also nothing in this interview that will calm the nerves of Democrats who are saying it is time for him to get out."

ABC News' Martha Raddatz said after the interview that she had been in touch with several Democrats on Capitol Hill and "they say it was better than they expected, wasn't as bad as they expected, but that's a pretty low bar."

Will Biden's interview reassure nervous Democrats?

The politics of it all are better left to the pundits who traffic in that sort of thing. But solely as TV, it really is difficult to say that Biden's appearance would reassure nervous Democrats, who have openly begun discussions about asking him to step down as the Democratic candidate in the 2024 election.

His answers, for instance, sound OK when you read them in the transcripts. He was exhausted from a lot of international travel during the debate, he was sick, his debate performance was "nobody's fault but mine."

His delivery, however, was more halting and less assured than that sounds. Not always, but often. He got better and stronger as the interview went on, but he started out slowly.

More about it:What time is Joe Biden's interview today? How to watch him and George Stephanopolous

Biden's 'Spinal Tap' moment with George Stephanopoulos

For instance, Stephanopoulos asked Biden if he knew he was having a bad night during the debate. Biden gave a rambling answer that sort of ate its own tail, though he rightly pointed out that Trump lied so much it was difficult to combat.

"But it seemed like you were having trouble from the first question, even before he spoke," Stephanopoulos said.

After a long pause, Biden said, "Well, I just had a bad night."

That sounds like a fine enough answer. But the way Biden delivered it was reminiscent of the classic film "This Is Spinal Tap," when guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) shows off an amplifier whose volume goes to 11, not just 10. Why not just leave it at 10 and make 10 louder, the filmmaker asks?

Tufnel looks at him confused, as if he doesn't understand the absurdity of the question. "These go to 11," he says.

It was eerily similar to Biden's debate answer. It's the pause that did it.

The interview was at times almost painful to watch, as the camera focused on Biden while Stephanopoulos read damning reports from the New York Times about his age and reported cognitive decline. Biden just sat there and listened. What could he say? What could he do, but wait to answer?

Biden will quit only if 'the Lord Almighty' asks him to

Biden was stronger, as he was in the debate, when he got angry or fired up, saying a couple of times that "the Lord Almighty" would have to tell him to leave the race for it to happen. "Are you being honest with yourself about being able to defeat Donald Trump right now?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"YES," Biden said, emphatically, as if he'd been waiting for the question all night. Maybe he had been.

But Stephanopoulos was tough, immediately pivoting to polling that shows him running behind Trump.

"Do you really believe you're not behind right now?" Stephanopoulos said.

"All the pollsters I talk to say it's a toss-up," Biden said.

And so it went, a back and forth with Stephanopoulos asking a question and Biden challenging it

"Is it worth the risk" to try to defeat Trump?" Stephanopoulos said.

"I don't think anyone's more qualified to be president or win this race than me," Biden said.

Finally, Stephanopoulos asked, after being rebuffed several times, if enough friends and supporters convinced him he couldn't defeat Trump, if Biden would step away from the campaign.

"I'm not going to answer that question," he said. "That's not going to happen."

For what it's worth, at least from a TV perspective, Biden seemed to believe that. The reporting and response afterward bring into question whether that still matters.

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Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.