George Stephanopoulos Says Biden Can't Serve 4 More Years Amid Talks Of Cognitive Decline
George Stephanopoulos has admitted that he does not believe Joe Biden can serve another four years as president.
The "Good Morning America" co-host was captured making the admission to a person who approached him as he was walking on 5th Avenue in New York City Tuesday.
"Do you think Biden should step down?" the anonymous person could be heard asking the former White House communications director in a video obtained by TMZ. "You've talked to him more than anybody else has lately."
"I don't think he can serve four more years," Stephanopoulos responded.
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Stephanopoulos later expressed regret for making the comment.
"Earlier today, I responded to a question from a passerby. I shouldn't have," the ABC News anchor said in a statement to TMZ.
A spokesperson for ABC News also addressed his remarks, saying: "George expressed his own point of view and not the position of ABC News."
The video surfaced just days after Stephanopoulos sat down with Biden for the 81-year-old president's first TV interview since his poor performance at the June 27 presidential debate with Donald Trump.
During the post-debate interview, which aired Friday, Biden shut down the reports of cognitive decline and insisted that he simply had a "bad episode."
The president -- who was declared "fit for duty" in February following his annual physical -- also claimed that he was "exhausted" and "sick" with a "bad cold" at the time.
When asked if he would be willing to undergo cognitive and neurological tests, Biden refused to commit.
"Look. I have a cognitive test every single day," he told Stephanopoulos. "Every day, I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I'm running the world."
Elsewhere in the interview, Biden claimed that none of his allies has asked him to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
He quipped that he would only withdraw "if the Lord Almighty came down and said, 'Joe, get outta the race.'"
As for how he would feel if he fails to beat Trump in the upcoming November election, Biden said he believes he'd be OK as long as he "gave it [his] all."
Despite Biden's repeated rejection of concerns about his mental fitness, a number of medical experts have called for him to undergo cognitive testing.
In an analysis published by CNN, Dr. Sanjay Gupta wrote that he and several colleagues were "concerned" over Biden's "confused rambling; sudden loss of concentration in the middle of a sentence; halting speech and absence of facial animation" during the debate.
The CNN chief medical correspondent clarified that none of them were making a diagnosis and that these were just observations.
But Gupta added that he and other doctors believe Biden "should be encouraged to undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing, and those results should be made available to the public."
