Screenshot via ABC
George Stephanopoulos described former President Joe Biden as “heartbreaking up close” following an interview between the two after a roller-coaster presidential debate.
Stephanopoulos sat with then-President Biden in July of last year after a June 27 debate sparked bipartisan concerns about the president’s health and stamina. According to the just-released book Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History by Chris Whipple, Biden’s campaign set up Stephanopoulos to help calm concerns about Biden’s fitness after the debate.
The interview did not go as planned. Concerns only heightened and Stephanopoulos told TMZ shortly after the interview that the then-president was not fit to serve another four years, a comment he later regretted giving.
Whipple called Biden “hoarse and semi-coherent” in the interview and said Stephanopoulos questioned him “like a grandson.”
“Stephanopoulos questioned the president gently, like a grandson,” he wrote.
The author emailed Stephanopoulos for his reaction and the ABC News anchor called it “heartbreaking.”
“Afterward, when I asked the ABC anchor by email for his impressions, he replied: ‘Heartbreaking up close,”” he wrote.
In their interview, Stephanopoulos questioned the then-president over reports suggesting a mental decline.
“Are you the same man today that you were when you took office three-and-a-half years ago?” he asked.
“In terms of successes, yes. I also was the guy who put together a peace plan for the Middle East that may be coming into fruition. I was also the guy that expanded NATO. I was also the guy that grew the economy. All the individual things that were done were ideas I had or I fulfilled, I moved on,” Biden responded, chalking his debate performance up to a “bad night.”
The then-president dropped his reelection bid on July 21, less than three weeks after the Stephanopoulos interview.
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