President Joe Biden gave an exclusive interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt at the White House on Monday, which will air unedited at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
It is the latest press appearance for the president since his performance at June's debate with Donald Trump raised questions about his fitness for office. It is also the first such interview since Saturday's assassination attempt against Trump.
In excerpts released by NBC News before airtime, the president allowed that he was getting old.
"But I’m only three years older than Trump, number one," he said. "And number two, my mental acuity has been pretty damn good. I’ve gotten more done than any president has in a long time in three-and-a-half years. I’m willing to be judged on that."
The president repeated his commitment to remain in the 2024 presidential race, saying he was respecting the will of those who had voted for him during the primary.
“I listen to them,” he said.
The interview airs during Day 1 of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the Republican Party formally nominated Donald Trump for president. Also on Monday, Trump announced Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance would run as his vice president.
The Democratic National Convention, where President Biden is the party's presumptive nominee for president in the 2024 election, will run Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
President Biden has previously brushed off the proposal of a "mini-primary," in which delegates at the convention could vote for a new candidate should the president decide to step aside from the 2024 race.
But the president did say last week during a press conference at the NATO summit that he would allow delegates at the convention to vote their conscience.
"Obviously they're free to do whatever they want," President Biden told Scripps News during that conference. "If I show up at the convention and everybody says 'We want somebody else,' that's the democratic process." But, he added, "That's not going to happen."
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