Live updates: Biden ABC News interview; 2024 election news | CNN Politics

President Joe Biden said in a high-stakes interview on ABC that he was “sick” and “feeling terrible” before his poor performance in the CNN presidential debate, but dismissed the question of whether it was a sign of a more serious condition — and said he would not be taking and releasing the results of a cognitive test.

If you missed the interview, here’s what to know:

Biden says debate was a “bad night,” not a bigger problem: The president said in the interview that he was “sick” and “feeling terrible” before the debate. Asked whether it was a bad episode or a sign of a more serious condition, Biden dismissed those concerns.

The president takes ownership of poor performance, but offers a new excuse: The president said he has not watched a replay of his performance. When he was asked whether he knew how badly it was going, he said it was “nobody’s fault but mine.” 

But later in the interview, Biden offered a different explanation. He said he was distracted by his opponent Donald Trump talking out of turn even though the former president’s microphone was muted. 

Biden and Trump and their teams agreed to the rules ahead of the debate. 

Biden won’t take a cognitive test and release it to voters: Biden said that “no one said I had to” have cognitive and neurological exams, telling Stephanopoulos that, “I get a full neurological test every day” – referring to the demands of his job.

When asked whether he’s had cognitive tests and an exam by a neurologist, Biden said no.

“No one said I had to. … They said I’m good.”

Biden denies polls show him losing to Trump: The president said that all of his pollsters characterize the race as a “toss-up” as he began to point to specific polls before trailing off. 

Biden claimed that “the New York Times had me down 10 points before the debate, nine now, or whatever the hell it is.” 

CNN’s Daniel Dale fact-checked the president’s claims and found the president did not gain a point in New York Times polling after the debate. In fact, the Times’ post-debate poll, conducted with Siena College, showed Biden doing three points worse against Trump than he had done in the final Times/Siena poll before the debate. Biden’s specific numbers were also wrong, though he did acknowledge his uncertainty about the data when he said “or whatever the hell it is.”

Read more takeaways here.