President Biden dismissed concerns about his performance in Thursday’s debate with former President Trump, despite widespread panic among Democrats about how debate night played out.
After the debate, the president and first lady Jill Biden stopped off at a Waffle House in Atlanta, where they placed their order and answered a few questions from reporters.
“I think we did a good job,” Biden said.
Asked whether he was facing calls from some Democrats to withdraw from the race and whether he had concerns about his performance, Biden said he had no concerns.
“No. It’s hard to argue with a liar. The New York Times found he lied 26 times,” he said, acknowledging he had a sore throat.
Biden’s performance on Thursday was widely panned by Democrats, with some acknowledging it will spark debate about whether he should be replaced as the top Democratic candidate before the party’s convention in August.
“This is going to be a huge distraction and a huge strain on the campaign,” Biden’s former press secretary, Jen Psaki, said on MSNBC. “Should he be replaced? They’re going to be answering that question instead of diving into attacking Trump.”
The president’s voice was often hoarse — a problem the White House later attributed to a cold — and he sometimes seemed to lose his train of thought or struggle to get his point across clearly.
A CNN poll of debate viewers showed that 67% of those surveyed thought Trump won the debate, while 33% thought Biden won.
In a series of interviews on Thursday night, Vice President Harris defended Biden’s debate performance but also acknowledged he “got off to a slow start.”
“It certainly started slow but finished strong,” she told CNN, “and what was made very clear throughout the night is that Joe Biden is fighting for the American people.”
