During a 20-minute TV interview last night, Joe Biden tried to downplay his disastrous debate performance against Trump and even justified it by saying he was “exhausted.”
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“I was sick. I really didn’t feel well,” the Democratic leader told ABC, calling the duel a “bad episode.”
Biden spoke without a safety net, alone with George Stephanopoulos, a journalist and former top aide to Democratic President Bill Clinton. He was unable to say whether he had rewatched the 90-minute standoff with Republican rival Donald Trump that plunged his candidacy into turmoil and raised questions about his cognitive status.
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“The excuse seems weak to me to explain the image of the paralyzed man that he projected during the debate. We know that the life of a president is busy and chaotic, and that is precisely the problem. Is his condition stable?” asks political analyst Luc Laliberté.
Faculties
“The mere fact that the president has to be challenged on his cognitive abilities during prime time is incredibly negative for a candidate,” he adds.
The octogenarian had a second excuse for his poor performance in the debate: Trump spoke even though his microphone was muted. “Even when they turned his microphone off, he kept yelling,” he told the moderator.
Note that Donald Trump refused to engage in such an exercise with the channel.
“I believe that Joe Biden, with his back to the wall, could not ignore the possibility of this interview on ABC, but I do not believe that it could contribute to the relaunch of the president. The man who presented himself (yesterday) evening is the one of the good days, it is rather the accumulation of bad days that he can no longer avoid,” recalls Luc Laliberté.
Another blunder
The octogenarian also made a new gaffe in an interview on a Philadelphia radio station on Thursday. He described himself as “the first black woman to serve the country with a black president.”
Biden thus made a mistake, while speaking on the microphone of the African-American radio station WURD, as part of a vast media tour for the United States’ national holiday.
Seeking to court black voters, he emphasized the fact that he served as vice president during Barack Obama’s two terms and that he nominated the first-ever black female vice president, Kamala Harris.
In his interview with ABC, Joe Biden assured that “no one is more qualified than me to be president or to win this election.”
“I can’t decide whether I have respect for Joe Biden’s determination and confidence in his abilities or whether I am mostly saddened by the prospect of him gradually squandering his legacy by living in denial of his problems,” Laliberté concludes.
