Biden’s ABC interview does nothing to quell the existential crisis around his campaign

President Joe Biden’s struggle to prove he’s got the strength and cognitive capacity for a second term is becoming an excruciating personal and national ordeal.

Watching a visibly aged Biden answer frank questions Friday about his health on primetime television – which would normally remain between a patient and their doctor – felt like an affront to presidential dignity. It was sad to see a person who’s respected and beloved by many Americans suffer such a plight. And it would be a hard heart that did not empathize with Biden as he confronts the painful human realities of aging in the most public manner imaginable.

Yet Biden’s position, his shocking presidential debate performance and his defiant refusal to contemplate its implications for his reelection campaign, mean he’s forcing the country to have the conversation.