Oh boy, there is some HEAVY drinking happening right now at Biden campaign headquarters. The old man has dug himself a hole, and the campaign might not be able to bail him out of it.

First of all, who on the campaign signed off on that Stern interview? It doesn’t matter how many questions you plant or how tightly you control an interview – Joe Biden is always going to go off the rails. It would be kind to say that Grandpa was reliving some of his glory days on the air. It was cringey at best and outright lying at worst.

“A lot of lovely women — but women would send very salacious pictures and I’d just give them to the Secret Service. I thought somebody would think I was…,” the 81-year-old president said before trailing off.

It’s unclear why the Secret Service, whose role is to protect the president and investigate counterfeiting and fraud, would have any interest in amateur soft-core porn sent to Biden while he was an unmarried senator from 1973 to 1977.

Biden shared other colorful accounts with Stern, saying that he “never had been to bed with” his first wife, Neilia Hunter, when he told her, “I think I’m gonna marry you.” Biden and Hunter did wed in 1966, only for her to be killed in a 1972 car accident.

The president also mixed up basic facts in the interview, which ran for more than one hour. On two occasions, Biden told Stern he was preparing to address the Gridiron Club’s annual dinner in DC on Saturday night.

In fact, Biden already appeared at the Gridiron dinner last month, but meant to refer to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

President Brandon also told another civil rights tall tale, plus a few extra whoppers.

Biden claimed at another point he “got arrested standing on the porch with a black family” during civil rights protests — calling it a “true story.”

The president previously has claimed he was involved in the civil rights movement and that he had been arrested — but at other points has admitted he was uninvolved and there’s no evidence he was arrested.

The president also said that as a young lawyer, he had worked on “a couple murder cases” and saved lives “half a dozen times” while a swimming pool lifeguard in Delaware, adding sheepishly, “it’s not like it’s so heroic.”

Howard Stern: “Did you ever save anyone’s life when you were a lifeguard?”

Joe Biden: “Half-a-dozen times, usually younger kids. It was a big pool.” pic.twitter.com/a3vz5Da3wh

— Real Mac Report (@RealMacReport) April 26, 2024

What happened to the case with the guy who had his penis burned off? Is that one forgotten now? And the Washington Post wrote up a very detailed account about Joe Biden’s time as a lifeguard back in 2019, and nowhere in that narrative does a story of Joe saving anyone’s life, let alone “half a dozen” lives, come up. So he’s going to “borrow” Ronald Reagan’s life story, after appropriating Neil Kinnock’s back in the 80’s? And that supposed “arrest” for civil rights? Even the New York Times has to admit that one’s a giant fib – even though they can’t say that.

How did ⁦@nytimes⁩ describe ⁦@JoeBiden⁩ lying to Howard Stern about being arrested at a civil rights protest? By saying Biden “appeared to once again stretch the truth.” He didn’t “stretch the truth” he lied. Why won’t ⁦@nytimes⁩ say Biden lied? pic.twitter.com/A9GqmSsclb

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 27, 2024

But back to the moment that sent the Biden campaign into absolute panic.

“I don’t know if you’re going to debate your opponent,” Stern said.

The president replied, “I am, somewhere, I don’t know when. I’m happy to debate him.”

Trump campaign advisor Chris LaCivita was quick to respond on Twitter/X.

Ok let’s set it up ! https://t.co/wPMBiGi0IU

— Chris LaCivita (@LaCivitaC) April 26, 2024

Trump himself put forth a very flexible offer to Biden.

“He can do it anytime he wants, including tonight. He can do it tonight,” Trump said. “I invited him to the courthouse that he has us tied up in. This is a well coordinated attack on a political opponent.”

Trump added: “But I’m here, I’m ready, willing and able.”

Trump said “if he wants, I’ll do it on Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night.”

Trump said Wednesday night he will campaign in Michigan, saying it is a state that Biden “has destroyed because of the auto industry” and said auto jobs are “all going over to China with his ridiculous electric vehicle mandate.”

“But we’re willing to do it Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night on national television,” Trump said. “We’re ready. Just tell me where.”

“We’ll do it at the White House,” Trump said. “That would be very comfortable, actually. You tell me where. We’re ready.”

Once again, Team Trump has Team Biden backed into a corner on this, and it’s all Joe Biden’s fault. The entire strategy for avoiding debates was going to be to point to the fact that Donald Trump did not participate in the Republican primary debates, or claim that Joe Biden would never demean himself to debating someone under indictment/convicted. The poll numbers are not working in Biden’s favor, the court cases are delayed or look like a joke, and now Biden has opened his mouth and agreed to the debate. Which means now, if the campaign refuses to agree to a debate, it looks like they don’t trust Biden and are actively overruling him for his own protection. Biden has now effectively put his entire campaign between a rock and a hard place on debates, with no way to save face.

Now, we all know that putting Biden on a debate stage more than once is political malpractice. He could be hopped up enough on whatever speedball Hunter can find for him to get through one evening the way he got through the State of the Union, but they can’t do that multiple times. And even then, the State of the Union is on a teleprompter in front of him. Even the teleprompters are out to get Joe Biden these days.

Biden’s handlers want to pretend this highly embarrassing moment didn’t happen.

Here’s how it played out in the official White House transcript: pic.twitter.com/ZvM2noAKD5

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 24, 2024

When Joe Biden is in an uncontrolled environment where questions are being flung at him, we get moments like the Howard Stern interview, where it’s just one whopper after another. Put him on a stage with Donald Trump and he’ll just start yelling about “suckers and losers” again and claiming that Beau died in Iraq and God knows what else. The campaign knows that. They also know that they are in their own personal Kobayashi Maru – a no-win situation. They are likely breaking open the hard stuff and crying between shots.

Everyone else, get the popcorn ready. We might actually get a debate after all. And if not, the fallout will certainly be entertaining.

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons/cropped/adjusted/CC BY-SA 2.0.