US President Joe Biden has dismissed concerns about his health and doubts about his re-election bid in November, defending his poor performance in the presidential debate as a “bad episode” and insisting that only “the Lord almighty” could persuade him to exit the race. Following his performance in the debate last week, some of his own Democratic Party leaders had started urging him to step down and his approval rating plummeted.

“It was a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing and had a bad night,” Biden said during his first interview after the debate. “Because I was sick. I was feeling terrible. The doctors were with me and they also did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold,” he said and reiterated multiple times that he was running for the presidency. He also stated that nobody questioned his age when he introduced the effective policies for the nation.