Former Biden administration chief of staff Ron Klain dismissed concerns about Biden’s debate performance, saying it said nothing about his ability to be president or beat former President Trump in November.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday, Klain urged Democrats and voters to support Biden’s candidacy after many are questioning whether he should be removed as the party’s presidential nominee following the debate late last month.
“We’re not hiring a debate chief, we’re hiring a commander in chief,” Klain told co-host Willie Geist.
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Ron Klain, a former White House chief of staff under President Biden, told MSNBC he saw no reason to think Biden’s debate performance would affect his ability to win a second term and govern effectively. (Screenshot/MSNBC)
The two discussed Biden’s suitability to be president, and amid growing calls for the president to abandon the race, Klain outshone Trump throughout the conversation, praising Biden as a man fit to be president.
After Klain spent a few minutes praising Biden’s performance in the White House (though he acknowledged that Biden’s debate night was “terrible”), Geist pressed the former Biden official on whether people were right to be concerned about Biden’s health after the debate.
“Ron, do you understand that the fact that the president of the United States, nearly two weeks after returning from Europe, was unable to perform in a 90-minute debate may intensify people’s doubts about his ability to do his job?”
“No,” Mr. Klein replied, “Willie, you saw him at work and you just saw NATO leaders get through a grueling week of NATO meetings and say that NATO has finalized the Ukraine Declaration, a new breakthrough in confronting NATO and Russian aggression.”
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Biden made several more gaffes and verbal errors at a NATO summit in Washington on Thursday night. (Getty Images)
But Biden stumbled and made gaffes while speaking at a NATO summit in Washington on Thursday.
That same day, Biden called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “President Putin.” He quickly regained his composure and added, “President Putin? He’s going to take down President Putin. President Zelensky. I’m focused on taking down Putin. We’ve got to worry about that. Anyway, Mr. President.”
During a press conference that evening, Biden mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” raising further questions about her mental competency.
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Despite those missteps, Klain assured Geist that Biden’s public performance isn’t as important as his policies: Americans want someone “who will lead our economy, who will lead our domestic policy, who will stand up for freedom around the world, who will stand up for freedom at home as Republicans try to roll back women’s rights, and I think they’re seeing that in Joe Biden.”
“I think that’s the measure of whether he’s fit to be president and what kind of president he is,” Klain concluded.
