Representative Jim Clyburn (D., S.C.) said Sunday that President Biden should stay in the presidential race and dismissed his disastrous debate performance as a consequence of “preparation overload.”
Asked during an appearance on CNN what he would tell Democratic and independent voters who were concerned by Biden’s debate performance last week, Clyburn said, “Take into account the record.”
“Yes, it was a bad performance,” he said. “I’ve been around these things. I’ve been a part of debate preparations before and I know when I see what I call ‘preparation overload’ and that’s exactly what was going on the other night. I saw Joe Biden grabbing for words and phrases and even numbers that he was loaded up with.”
Clyburn pointed to Biden’s rally the next day in North Carolina, in which the president appeared more-coherent and less-frail, as evidence that it was merely poor debate prep that did him in. The congressman said Biden in North Carolina was “free-wheeling and he captivated the audience.”
As CNN host Dana Bash pointed out, Biden was able to rely on a teleprompter on Friday. The rally also had an earlier start-time than the 9 p.m. debate.
Clyburn said he has not spoken to the president since the debate.
“If he asks my opinion, I will give it, as I always do,” he said. “And that is very clearly, he should stay in this race. He should demonstrate going forward his capacity to lead the country and I think the American people are demonstrating that.”
Clyburn went on to claim that while there were some trepidations among lawmakers the morning after the debate, only one person he spoke to suggested Biden should drop out. Everyone else believes only “some calibrations” are needed going forwarded, he claimed.
He suggested Biden could do well in a second debate with different preparation and different rules.
“I don’t like the debate where nobody will do any fact checking,” he said, claiming Trump told “30 some off lies and nobody checked him on it.”
He suggested it should have been the moderators’ responsibility to fact-check Trump, not Biden’s.
Finally, asked whether it would help Biden to release his full medical records, Clyburn deflected asking, “When has Trump released records?”
He claimed Trump has “released a bunch of foolishness.”
Clyburn’s defense comes as the editorial boards of the New York Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution have urged Biden to drop out of the race.
Biden, meanwhile, tried to play down his poor debate showing at the rally in North Carolina on Friday. “I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he said, as his supporters cheered.
“I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. I know, like millions of Americans, when you get knocked down, you get back up,” Biden added.