Joe Biden did not have a good time during a recent Lester Holt interview on NBC, especially after he was presented with a fresh wound of questions about his disastrous performance in the June debate. The resulting exchange was unusually caustic for a sedate major media interview.
When the topic of the debate came up, Holt didn’t beat around the bush. Instead, he came out directly to say of Biden’s performance “you appeared to be confused.” He also pointed out that many congressional Democrats have expressed public concerns about Biden’s suitability for re-election based on the mental muddiness on display during the debate.
Biden fired back, asking why “you guys” in the media never bring up “the 18…28 lies he [Trump] told?” He repeated the claim that Trump lied 28 times, and that this figure had been “confirmed” by parties who the President did not name. Biden then said that he’d just had a bad night, that he wasn’t feeling in the peak of health, and that he “screwed up.”
It wasn’t the only time during the interview where Biden got his back up.
Holt pressed the President on his unexpected admission, which came during a press conference, that Biden had not watched and evaluated his own performance Biden fired back that he didn’t need to watch the debate because he was there. Biden then re-iterated his accusation that the press won’t discuss Trump’s lying ways.
Biden also pushed back against Holt’s framing of a proposed third debate with Trump, to be held between now and an already-scheduled rematch, as a way for Biden to “get back on the horse” and make the loss of public confidence he suffered in the last debate.
In response, Biden claimed “I’m on the horse,” and pointed out that he’d made twenty two public appearances—which he characterized as “major events”—since the night of the debate.
Other issued discussed include the selection of J.D. Vance as Trump’s running mate, and the investigation into Trump’s shooting.
