‘I Prepared — What I Usually Would Do’ Is Sit Down for Detail, NYT Has Me Doing Better Post-Debate, Trump Lied

In a portion of an ABC News interview that aired on “World News Tonight” on Friday, President Joe Biden said he knew things would get bad during last week’s debate, saying, “I prepared, as I always do, to sit down and discuss specific details with foreign leaders and with the National Security Council. And along the way, you know, we all … I can’t quote you, but The New York Times “He was 10 points behind me before the debate, now he’s nine points behind me, or whatever it may be. In fact, from what I saw, he lied 28 times,” he said. “So the way the debate went was not my fault, it was not anybody else’s fault,” he said, adding that his struggles before former President Donald Trump, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, began his speech were simply because he was in a bad mood that night.

ABC host George Stephanopoulos asked: “What I’m trying to say is, what were you going through during the debate? Were you aware of how bad the debate was?”

Biden responded: “Well, the whole process that I went through is nobody’s fault, it’s my fault. I sat down and prepared like I always do, asking foreign leaders and the National Security Council for details and coming back. And along the way, all of the — I can’t quote you, The New York Times “He was down 10 points before the debate, now he’s down 9 points, or I don’t know what it was, but he lied 28 times, as a matter of fact, from what I saw, he lied 28 times too. I can’t say that it’s my fault, it’s nobody else’s fault, it’s nobody’s fault, the way the debate was conducted.”