Former Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel, 94, questioned whether President Biden should end up in a nursing home instead of the White House after last week’s debate disaster.
“I have never been more shocked and embarrassed by a presidential debate than I was last Thursday,” Rangel, who served in Congress from 1971 to 2017, said Sunday on 770 WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable.”
“One [candidate is] A convicted criminal with no respect for truth or morality. The other seemed extremely confused and had no idea how to respond to the presenter or where the hell he was.”
Rangel, a Democrat, told host John Catsimatidis that he “wouldn’t be opposed” to both candidates taking cognitive tests to determine their suitability. Trump is 78, just three years younger than Biden.
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President Biden looks down as he takes part in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election with former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at CNN studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024. (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
“It’s clear Biden was shaken by the response … We have to wonder what happens next,” he said. [the next] For four years.”
Rangel said Biden’s debate performance was so problematic that he needed to remind voters that Trump could be convicted and sentenced to prison in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
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He said Republicans and Democrats in most states would vote for their party’s candidate despite his shortcomings, and that the election would be narrowed down to seven battleground states.
New Yorkers watch the 2024 presidential debate between President Trump and Biden on June 27, 2024, in New York City. (Lokman Vural Eribor/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“If Trump goes to jail, Republicans will vote for him. If Biden goes to a nursing home, [the Democrats] I’m going to vote for him,” he said.
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But Rangel isn’t ready to write off Biden, noting that he performed well in his speech the day after the debate.
Former president uses his hands to communicate during debates (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
“He was very precise, very articulate, even better than he was in the State of the Union.” [address]And I thought, “Where the hell was Joe Biden? [during the debate]?'” He said.
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Former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-New York) questioned whether President Biden should go into nursing homes after the debate with President Trump. (Seth Wenig Pool/Getty Images)
Biden often stumbled over his answers during the debate, at one point freezing and saying, “I won Medicare for Medicare.”
Though Rangel struggled with physical health during the latter part of his 46 years in Congress, he seemed mentally alert.
