President Joe Biden said in a highly anticipated Friday interview that he doesnt believe he has fallen behind in the 2024 campaign, calling the race a toss-up despite a series of recent polls that have shown him trailing Donald Trump by 2 to 6 percentage points nationally.

Bidens statements, during a 22-minute ABC News interview, came a little more than a week after his halting, confused performance in a debate with Trump prompted new questions about his abilities to campaign and to serve a second term as president.

Democratic officials and operatives and, presumably, millions of other Americans were watching the interview to see whether the debate performance was just a bad night, as Biden and his supporters maintain.

But especially for the political professionals, the interview wasnt just a way to measure Bidens abilities. It was also a chance to hear how he sees the state of the campaign and his ability to win it.

It seems clear Biden has a lot more confidence than his doubters and a lot less faith in the public opinion surveys.

When ABCs George Stephanopoulos rattled off some of the recent poll numbers and said Biden has fallen further behind by any measure, Biden disagreed.

You guys keep saying that, Biden said. George, you know polling better than anybody. Do you think polling data is as accurate as it used to be?

Stephanpoulos then noted that in many instances, polls found Biden running behind Democrats campaigning for the U.S. Senate or other statewide offices. Biden dismissed the significance of those findings, saying, Thats not unusual, in some states. I carried an awful lot of Democrats last time I ran, in 2020.