In an apparent attempt to do damage control after last week's debate, President Joe Biden and ABC News are reportedly moving up their planned airing of an interview to a Friday night primetime special.
Biden agreed to sit down early Friday with former President Bill Clinton official George Stephanopoulos and the original plan to air the full interview has been switched from Sunday on "This Week" to an 8 p.m. ET primetime special, the New York Post reported Thursday.
The preview of the highlights of the interview will first air on ABC News' "World News Tonight with David Muir" at 6:30 p.m. ET and air in full during the primetime special.
The Post speculated the interview special was moved up to help control the narratives that Biden might be pressured to step down from his 2024 presidential reelection campaign.
Biden's age (81) and his cognitive issues have been widely questioned since the Atlanta, Georgia, debate June 27, leading to top donors and other Democrats to make calls for Biden to step away.
The New York Times and a multitude of Democrat-friendly media outlets have made public calls for Biden to step aside in the race against Trump, fearing the Democrats would lose the power of the White House if not control of Congress.
The White House has repeatedly denied Biden is considering stepping down, but multiple reports have aides and Democrat strategists saying that his resignation to be a one-term president is being discussed in his inner circle.
Stephanopoulos figures to be a friendly ally in the media, having served as Clinton's campaign communications director and serving in the Clinton administration.
Directing communications for a Democrat White House has been a feature of Stephanopoulos' ABC News broadcasts, where he forcefully defends Democrat policy and contests Trump's candidacy with Democrat-like talking points.
The interview has been hastily moved up to help Biden deliver a public presentation to Americans that the president is up for the job and capable of keeping Trump from the White House, according to the Post.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre admitted Vice President Kamala Harris is Biden's presidential heir apparent, but there is some speculation that pressure from donors and leading Democrats might force the Biden family to make a difficult decision to relinquish power to an heir.
One report even speculated Harris could be removed from the Biden ticket as running mate to play a "Plan C" card to install popular former President Barack Obama as his running mate. Legal scholars told the Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard that having Obama as a potential vice president initially after the 2024 election in November would allow the ticket to circumvent the Constitution's restriction of Obama being elected to a third term.
"One of the reasons why he picked the vice president ... Kamala Harris, is because she is indeed the future of the party," Jean-Pierre said in a daily press briefing this week, having preempted the speculation of Biden skeptics within the Democratic Party.
Biden has been doing damage control with major donors and even Democrat governors in the past week.
"We came together tonight to listen to President Biden to tell us, in his own words, what his plans were," New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul said after a Biden White House conference call with Democrat governors. "I'm here to tell you today President Joe Biden is in it to win it. And all of us said we pledged our support to him because the stakes could not be higher.
"We talked about how we transitioned under a monarchy and a tyranny that our Founding Fathers fought against and that we risk right now descending back into that very same place. We will stand with the president as we fight that force with force — that force being Donald Trump."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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