President Joe Biden, in an attempt to assuage the fears and anxieties at all levels of the Democratic Party, said Friday that it was a “bad episode” — not a condition — that led to his debate performance last week, widely panned as disastrous be members of his own party.
Biden answered the rhetorical question of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca., who earlier this week said it was fair to ask if Biden had a bad episode during the first presidential debate “or is this a condition?”
“It was a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing, and I had a bad night,” Biden tells ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in a taped interview set to air later Friday night.
Stephanopoulos interviewed Biden on Friday after a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin, where Biden completely ruled out quitting the presidential race, saying, “I am running, and I'm going to win again.”
In an excerpt aired by ABC News, Stephanopoulos asks Biden why he was still exhausted even after 11 days home from his last European trip to the G7 summit.
“Because I was sick. I was feeling terrible. Matter of fact, the doctors with me, I asked if they did a COVID test, trying to figure out what was wrong,” Biden answered. “He did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, you know, a virus. I didn't. He just said a really bad cold.”
Biden responded “I don’t think I did” when asked if he rewatched the debate in subsequent days, though he accused Trump of lying 28 times during the 90-minute prime time show.
iden gave a winding answer about whether he realized how badly the debate was going as it was happening.
“The whole way I prepared — nobody's fault, mine; nobody's fault but mine. I prepared what I usually would do; sitting down as I did, come back with foreign leaders or National Security Council for explicit detail. And I realized about partway through that, you know, all the — quoted The New York Times had me down 10 points before the debate, 9 now or whatever the hell it is. The fact of the matter is that, what I looked at is that he also lied 28 times. I couldn't, I mean, the way the debate ran — not my fault, nobody else's fault, no one else's fault,” Biden said before Stephanopoulos cut in with another question.
“Well, I just had a bad night,” Biden said.