Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-Calif.) endorsed President Biden in television appearances on Sunday, saying he should continue running for president despite his dismal performance in the debate.
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the lawmakers acknowledged that Biden had a “terrible night” on Thursday but rejected growing calls for him to withdraw from the race. Pelosi argued that Biden struggled only because of former President Trump’s “lies” on stage, while Clyburn argued that Biden’s poor performance was simply because he had “too much preparation.”
CNN host Dana Bash began her interview with Pelosi by citing a poll showing that 72% of Americans believe Biden is no longer mentally fit to hold public office.
“So what do they think about the other candidate?” Pelosi asked voters. “Do they think he has the integrity to be president after that performance? Let’s not judge the president on one debate.”
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Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. James Clyburn endorsed President Biden in television appearances on Sunday, saying he should remain in the presidential race despite his dismal debate performance. (Getty Images)
“The reality is that the response to Donald Trump’s lies is what people are watching, and we should be having debates where he has to spend half the time rejecting what he says because he knows nothing about the truth,” she added. “There’s sincerity on one side of the screen and dishonesty on the other.”
Clyburn, who served as House Democratic Deputy Leader until last year, also dismissed Biden’s embarrassing debate performance in an interview with Bash magazine, saying he was fully confident that Biden would defeat Trump in November and serve as leader of the free world for another four years.
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“Joe Biden has provided great leadership over the last three years, so I don’t think he’ll have any problem providing leadership over the next four years,” he said. “Joe Biden should continue to run on that basis.”
Clyburn also dismissed Biden’s embarrassing debate performance and said he was fully confident Biden would beat Trump in November and serve another four years as leader of the free world. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Clyburn also acknowledged that Biden had a “bad performance” on Thursday, but offered his own explanation for why that happened.
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“I’ve seen this before. I’ve worked on debate prep before, and I know what it’s like to be overprepared,” he said. “That’s what was happening the other night. I watched Joe Biden struggle with the words and phrases and even numbers he had. And yet today, he arrived in North Carolina, he let loose and he captivated the audience.”
Biden’s performance on Thursday has prompted growing calls for him to withdraw from the presidential race. (Hannah Beyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Biden’s performance on Thursday has led to growing calls for him to withdraw from the presidential race. The editorial board of The New York Times argued that it was a “reckless gamble” for Biden to continue in the race. The editorial board of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution made a similar argument, calling on Biden to withdraw from the race “in the interest of the country.”
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But so far, all of the formal pressure on Biden to back down has come from outside: Democratic leaders in Congress and around the country, like Pelosi and Clyburn, continue to publicly support Biden’s run for president.
