President Joe Biden recently did an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in what was an obvious attempt to rehab his image following the disastrously bad debate he had with former President Donald Trump. It went less terribly than the debate for him, but still far from well, particularly as he had to address his ridiculous claim about why the debate went so badly.
As background, Biden said, during a recent fundraiser, that he performed so badly because of travel leading up to the debate. He said, “I decided to travel around the world a couple of times … shortly before the debate.” He continued, “I didn’t listen to my staff … and then I almost fell asleep onstage.” He then added that the traveling comment is his “explanation” for what happened, saying, “It’s not an excuse but an explanation.”
President Biden did travel a good bit leading up to the June 27 debate. Particularly, he was in France for the D-Day anniversary in early June and then traveled to Italy for the G7 conference. In both instances, he had his awkward moment. However, he was at Camp David for a full seven days before the debate, providing him with seemingly ample time to rest up.
Such is what Stephanopoulos, to his credit, asked Biden about toward the very beginning of the interview. He asked, “You know, you say you were exhausted. And– and I know you’ve said that before as well, but you came– and you did have a tough month. But you came home from Europe about 11 or 12 days before the debate, spent six days in Camp David. Why wasn’t that enough rest time, enough recovery time?”
President Biden then blamed his alleged illness and the travel, saying, “Because I was sick. I was feeling terrible. Matter of fact, the docs with me. I asked if they did a COVID test because they’re trying to figure out what was wrong. They did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, you know, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold.”
That came after Stephanopolous asked, “But your friend Nancy Pelosi actually framed the question that I think is on the minds of millions of Americans. Was this a bad episode or the sign of a more serious condition?” Biden told him, ” 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– and a bad night.”
Watch them here:
Fox News Channel contributor Juan Williams, commenting on Biden’s “bad episode” response, said, “Juan Williams on Biden interview: “Even if it was a bad episode, my God, that’s like saying, you know, I’m playing in the Super Bowl and I’ve just had a bad night. No, you prepare, it should not be a bad moment… There’s just no excuse. It was a devastatingly bad moment.”
Watch Williams roast Biden here:
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