In a Saturday morning appearance on CNN's Smerconish, sportscaster Bob Costas warned that President Joe Biden's fiery speech Friday night in Detroit doesn't change the "basic calculus" of his chances in November against former President Donald Trump.
In February, Costas was among the first media members to call for Biden to exit the presidential race. The Emmy-award winner called Democrats "feckless" for running the 81-year-old Biden against Trump, who is 78, in this year's presidential election.
Since the debate between Trump and Biden on June 27, the state of Biden's neurological health and mental fitness for the presidency has been the focus of intense speculation on Capitol Hill and in the media.
At least 20 sitting Democratic lawmakers had called on the president to step aside as of Friday, with some announcing their stance hours after he referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "President Putin" and Vice President Kamala Harris as "Vice President Trump" on Thursday during a press conference.
At a rally Friday night in Michigan, a state that is likely crucial to Biden's chances of defeating Trump for a second time, the president mentioned the speculation about his campaign and reaffirmed his pledge to stay in the race, promising to beat Trump.
"You've probably noticed there's been a lot of speculation lately—What's Joe Biden gonna do? Is going to stay in the race? Is he going to drop out of the race?" Biden told the crowd in Detroit. "Here's my answer: I am running and we're gonna win! I'm not going to change that."
Biden also received chants of "Don't You Quit!" by his supporters during the rally.
On Saturday, Michael Smerconish asked Costas for his take on the current state of the race as calls continue for Biden to step down following last month's poor debate performance.
Costas was asked by Smerconish what he would say to Biden supporters who ask, "Didn't you see him last night [in Detroit] fiery and on top of his game?"
"It doesn't change the basic calculus," Costas responded. "Again, it's a shame. Biden's a decent man. We don't want to see it play out this way, if we can. This has the feeling of somebody handing a participation trophy to a kid at a soccer match if he doesn't fall down. The bar is set so low that people applaud when he doesn't remind us yet again that he's not qualified to campaign and he's not qualified to finish four years as president."
Costas also said he wonders "whether we've been gaslit by Democrats" regarding Biden's physical and mental health.
"Biden had a chance to been as a statesman and a patriot [by leaving the race]. Now, we can no longer indulge his delusions. These are desperate times that call for measures to meet the circumstances," he said.
Newsweek emailed the White House and Biden campaign for comment related to Costas' statements.
While Biden has slipped in some polling since the debate, recent surveys and election forecasts also suggest that the contest is still essentially deadlocked, with Biden remaining well within striking distance of Trump just under four months before Election Day.
A national NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released on Friday found that the incumbent president has a small lead over the former president, albeit within the poll's 3.3 percent margin of error. Biden was favored by 50 percent of registered voters, while 48 percent backed Trump in a head-to-head matchup.
In Michigan, an average of recent polls from polling website FiveThirtyEight found that Trump was leading Biden by just 0.2 percent as of Friday. Trump was leading by 0.3 percent just before the debate.
However, the tight polling in battleground states continues to concern House and Senate Democrats, especially those involved in contentious races with both houses of Congress hanging in the balance.
On Thursday, Representative Greg Landsman, an Ohio Democrat representing a potentially competitive congressional district, warned on CNN that it is becoming "more likely" Republicans will control all three branches of government next January, adding that "everything is on the line here."
"The stakes are so high, Trump in a second term would be dangerous to our democracy. He'll upend our lives. The only thing worse than that is if he was in control of all three branches of government, which is becoming more and more likely to happen. That's where we're headed," the congressman said.
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Gabe Whisnant is Deputy Weekend Editor at Newsweek based in South Carolina. Prior to joining Newsweek in 2023, he directed ... Read more
