Joe Biden and his team continue to spout a stream of excuses for his abysmal first 2024 debate performance, with the latest attempted justifications coming straight from the president himself.
During a sitdown interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday, Biden blamed exhaustion, a “bad night,” not listening to his “instincts in terms of preparing,” a “really bad cold” and “feeling terrible,” former President Donald Trump “l[ying] 28 times,” and Trump “shouting” and distracting him.
These excuses follow a week-long effort by the White House to defend Biden’s startlingly bad debate performance. For her part, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cited jet lag, a cold, and old age before insisting the president is “as sharp as ever” at a press briefing Wednesday right before the long holiday weekend.
“There’s no question that international travel can be rigorous. I think the confusion is that he’s still suffering from the effects of that nearly two weeks later,” a reporter asked. “[D]o you guys usually have accommodations for him after he does a trip, that he’s gonna have jet lag for that long a period of time?”
“It’s the jet lag and also the cold, right?” Jean-Pierre insisted, “It is the two things, uh, that occurred.”
REPORTER: How is it possible that Biden would suffer from “jet lag” two weeks after he got back from his trip…?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: “It’s the jet lag AND also the cold, right?” pic.twitter.com/HYQ3r6dlwH
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 3, 2024
She later framed the defense
