Biden reiterated his commitment to staying in the race

The host then asked Biden if he had seen the video of the discussion. As Biden said, "I don't think I did, no."

President Joe Biden addressed his performance in a direct manner, calling it a "bad episode" and accepting full responsibility for what happened in his first TV interview following the CNN debate with Donald Trump.

After a gathering with Democratic supporters in Madison, Wisconsin, where Biden reaffirmed his intention to continuing in the race, ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos spoke with Biden.

Without spending any time in the debate, Stephanopoulos acknowledged that Biden's team had described it as a "bad night." Admittedly, Biden agreed, saying plainly, "Sure did."

After that, the discussion shifted to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's comments, in which she questioned whether the argument was a sign of a more significant underlying problem. Biden clarified, "It was a bad episode." "No sign of a life-threatening illness. I was worn out. In terms of preparation, I disregarded my gut feeling, which led to a terrible night."

The host questioned why he didn't have enough recovery time when it came to his preparation for the discussion, which came after his foreign travel to France for the D-Day celebration and rest at Camp David. In response, Biden said, "Because I was sick. I felt really bad." He revealed that tests had ruled out COVID-19 but that he had been suffering from a bad cold.

When asked if he knew how bad the performance was going while he was on stage, Biden replied, "Yeah, look." It was entirely my responsibility for preparing in the first place. No one else's fault save mine."

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"I prepared what I usually would do sitting down as I did come back with foreign leaders or the National Security Council for explicit detail," he said, reflecting on his preparation approach and how he misapplied it for the debating environment. Midway through that, I noticed that the New York Times had me beat, ten points ahead of the debate, nine points now, or whatever the hell it was. In actuality, what I found out is that he lied 28 times as well. 

The fact of the matter is that what I looked at is that he also lied 28 times. I couldn't-- I mean, the way the debate ran, not-- my fault, nobody else's fault, no one else's fault."

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

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

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