President Biden three times dodged questions about whether he’d take a neurological test in one of the more contentious moments of his first sit-down interview since a widely panned presidential debate performance last week.

“Have you had a full neurological and cognitive evaluation?” ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos asked Biden in an interview conducted Friday afternoon and aired in the evening.

“I get a full neurological test every day with me,” Biden replied. “I’ve had a full physical. … I’ve been to Walter Reed for my physicals.”

Stephanopoulos again pressed the president about taking a neurological test, and Biden again ducked. 

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“Have you had the specific cognitive tests, and have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“No, no one said I had to. … They said I’m good,” Biden responded.

Stephanopoulos pressed Biden a third time on taking a cognitive or neurological test, and if the president would agree to take one, asking if Biden then would release the results of such a test to the public. The president, however, brushed off the question by saying he is tested every day in his role as president. 

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“Look, I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden said. “Every day I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world. Sounds like hyperbole, but we are the central nation in the world.

“And every single day — for example, today, before I come out here — I’m on the phone with the prime minister of … Well anyway, I shouldn’t get into detail, but with Netanyahu. I’m on the phone with the new prime minister of England. I’m working on what we’re doing with regard to in Europe, with regard to expansion to NATO and whether it’s going to stick. I’m taking on Putin. I mean, every day, there’s no day I go through there’s not those decisions I have to make every single day.” 

President Biden’s debate performance “changed people’s calculations about how candid they would be” about his cognitive issues, according to Olivia Nuzzi. (Getty Images)

Biden’s ABC interview was his first extensive one-on-one since a disastrous debate against former President Trump, which escalated concern about the president’s mental acuity and age. A wave of Biden’s traditional Democratic allies and establishment media outlets, such as The New York Times, called on the president to exit the race.

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The debate performance included the president tripping over his words, losing his train of thought at times and delivering responses with a raspy voice. He fared poorly compared to former President Trump.

Former President Trump participates in the first presidential debate at CNN Studios in Atlanta June 27. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Biden and his administration and campaign have remained resolute that Biden will remain in the race despite the mounting calls for someone else, such as Vice President Kamala Harris, to step in and become the party’s nominee in November. 

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Biden said during the interview he’s aware he performed poorly during the debate, telling Stephanopoulos it was a “bad episode.” 

“No indication of a serious condition. I was exhausted,” Biden said. “I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing. It was a bad night.

“The whole way I prepared — nobody’s fault. Mine. Nobody’s fault but mine,” Biden said. “I prepared what I usually would do sitting down, as I did coming back with foreign leaders or the National Security Council, for explicit detail.”

Hollywood knows a flop when it sees one.

So it’s hardly surprising that some of the industry’s biggest luminaries are engaged in a collective act of hand-wringing over President Biden’s weak performance during last week’s presidential debate against former President Trump.

Hollywood backers, including those who previously wrote large checks, are feeling skittish about Biden’s prospects, with some growing increasingly vocal in their calls to remove him from the top of the ticket.

The public drumbeat from the reliably liberal entertainment industry began to crescendo with a column published Wednesday in Deadline from “Lost” co-creator Damon Lindelof, who said he would withhold future donations until Biden stepped aside as the Democratic presidential candidate.

In a Friday email to The Times, Lindelof said Biden’s debate performance — which was supposed to assuage concerns about Biden’s age, but did the opposite — changed his mind about the president’s candidacy. Though he has “immense respect” for Biden, he said, the risks posed by the president remaining in the race were too high. Lindelof said he donated $125,000 this cycle to the Biden campaign and nearly as much to Democratic Party Senate and congressional candidates.

“For me, this isn’t about the ability to govern, it’s about the ability to WIN,” he wrote.

Many Democrats fear Biden’s liabilities put the party at risk of losing not just the White House but downballot races in a way that will do long-term damage to their causes.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, too, has called for Biden to “step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous,” according to the New York Times. Hastings and his wife have contributed more than $20 million in donations to the Democratic Party over the last few years, the newspaper reported. Hastings declined further comment.

Other prominent Hollywood players have voiced concerns about Biden’s continued presence in the campaign, including Endeavor Chief Executive Ari Emanuel, brother of Democratic politician Rahm Emanuel, and media titan Barry Diller, who replied bluntly when asked by the Ankler if he would continue to support the Biden campaign: “No.” Filmmaker and Disney heir Abigail Disney said she would withhold donations until Biden was replaced at the top of the Democratic Party’s ticket.

Biden has said he will remain in the race, despite the mounting pressure. On Friday, speaking in front of supporters at a Wisconsin middle school, Biden acknowledged his subpar debate but vowed to keep fighting.

“I beat Donald Trump,” Biden said. “I will beat him again.”

Hollywood has long been a major funding source for the Democratic Party, with industry power players often hosting major fundraisers and publicly throwing their support behind candidates. That’s why the industry’s current anxiety looms large over the Biden campaign.

“The sense of things right now is that all this lives in the hands of Joe Biden and the people closest to the Biden family, as well as a handful of close advisors,” said Steve Caplan, adjunct instructor of public relations and advertising at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, who is currently teaching a course on political advertising and the 2024 election. “I think that’s certainly true, but without money — mega-donor money, including Hollywood money — there is no campaign.”

It wasn’t long ago that some of Hollywood’s elite were at a star-studded fundraiser for Biden at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Organized by industry titan and former DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, the soiree boasted the likes of late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, along with actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

The event raised more than $30 million, according to the Biden campaign.

Katzenberg is one of Biden’s seven campaign co-chairs and has raised millions for his race. After he repeatedly dismissed Democrats’ concerns that Biden was too old to run — going so far as to call Biden’s age his “superpower” — some Hollywood donors are now frustrated. Since the June 27 debate, Katzenberg has been uncharacteristically silent.

Katzenberg, who created the short-lived streaming service Quibi, declined to comment for this story, referring questions to the Biden campaign.

Deciding whether Biden can stay in the presidential race will come down to three factors — Democratic Party leadership, the president’s polling performance and sentiment among big donors, said Jessica Levinson, who teaches election law at Loyola Law School.

“If your key donors jump ship, that’s not just a pocketbook hit, but it’s a big signal to other people as well,” she said.

Already, talk has started to turn toward who could replace Biden.

State and local politicians and activists are considering, “albeit with pain and reluctance,” the viability of a ticket led by Vice President Kamala Harris, said Donna Bojarsky, a longtime Democratic political consultant who runs a nonprofit dedicated to building civic engagement in L.A.

“There’s brewing potential excitement about Kamala,” she said. “The possibility of a next-generation team looking forward to the future could be very compelling.”

Hollywood insiders have said a fresh face could ignite more enthusiasm, such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

But not everyone in Hollywood is hitting the panic button.

“Everyone just needs to take a breath,” Democratic Party fundraiser and Hollywood advisor Andy Spahn said in an email Friday to The Times. “This will sort itself out soon enough.”

At least eight advocacy groups have filed permit applications to demonstrate in the vicinity of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, while some organizations have sued the city for access to protest.

As unrest within the Democratic Party leads to conjecture of a situation similar to the infamous 1968 convention in the Windy City, Chicago agencies have remained largely tight-lipped about who has applied for permits and will be able to demonstrate.

Fox News Digital reached out to three city agencies in charge of permitting, the Parks District, Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the city Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

A representative for CDOT said that, under municipal code, permits are reviewed by multiple departments to screen for potential conflicts, safety issues and availability of necessary city resources.

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“When a permit is denied, the applicant is given an alternative route that allows the parade to proceed while accounting for police resources, security, safety, and other additional factors. Each application that is submitted is evaluated based on the specific details of the proposed routes and any events happening concurrently in the city,” the representative said.

The representative said the city of Chicago has no comment on specific permits or applicants for the convention, citing ongoing litigation.

CDOT also was the only agency to respond thus far to Freedom of Information Act requests from the city’s NBC affiliate seeking similar information, according to the outlet.

Groups that applied for CDOT permits included the Israeli American Council, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and the Students for a Democratic Society at University of Illinois-Chicago, according to WMAQ’s findings.

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The Chicago skyline (Raymond Boyd/Getty)

Without specifying further, the outlet reported that “objection” was written on some of the applications.

Fox News Digital reached out to several of the applicant organizations but did not receive responses by press time.

In May, nine organizations joined the ACLU in suing the city over a permit denial relating to abortion rights and LGBTQ issues, according to CBS News.

At the time, CDOT said the protest would cause substantial and unnecessary traffic disruptions outside the bounds of what police and the city can handle.

A member of Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws – one of the groups cited in applications obtained by WMAQ – told CBS that the city’s response was reminiscent of that of then-Mayor Richard J. Daley in 1968.

Chicago law enforcement, however, has sought to reassure the public that a repeat of then-Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey’s nomination being marred by the so-called “Battle of Michigan Avenue” will be prevented.

“This will not be 1968,” Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said in June. “[O]ur officers are being trained in the best way possible to respond to any level of civil unrest.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson harked back to his history of community organizing and has highlighted the importance of civil protest.

Johnson said his vision for the DNC is to have a “safe, energetic and vibrant convention.”

“I’m confident that we will be able to deliver that,” he said in public remarks. “As far as applications are concerned, there are parameters in which we are working … that individuals who wish to demonstrate – we’re asking those individuals work within those parameters.”

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Heckman contributed to this report.