U.S. President Joe Biden sought to reassure Black voters that he will continue to work on their behalf, telling BET News in an interview to be aired late on Wednesday (July 17) that they “know where my heart is”, Reuters reports.
“If I had some medical condition that emerged. If somebody, if the doctors came to me and said, you got this problem, that problem. But I made a serious mistake in the whole debate. And, and look, when I originally ran you may remember and I said I was going to be a transitional candidate. I thought that I’d be able to move from this, just pass it on to someone else. But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided. And quite frankly, I think, the only thing age brings is a little bit of wisdom. And I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done for the country in spite of the fact that we were told we couldn’t get it done. But there’s more to do, and I’m reluctant to walk away from that,” Biden said.
Biden was responding to a question about what BET’s Ed Gordon said is the lack of “enthusiasm” for his candidacy in the Black community.
Biden, who is under fire from fellow Democrats to drop his re-election campaign, tested positive for COVID-19 while on a trip to Las Vegas on Wednesday and is self-isolating after experiencing mild symptoms, the White House said.
Asked if anything would make him reconsider running, Biden told BET that only if he was told he had a “medical condition” would he step aside.