- President Biden is being criticized for appearing unsure whether he watched his debate performance.
- His comments were made during an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday.
- The interview did little to ease concerns about his chances in the November election.
President Joe Biden is under fire on social media after appearing unsure whether he watched his disastrous debate performance with Donald Trump.
In a highly anticipated interview on ABC News on Friday, George Stephanopoulos asked Biden, “Did you watch the debate afterward?”
After a brief pause, Biden said: “I don’t think I did, no.”
Biden’s response sparked immediate reaction on social media.
Referring to the president’s response, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung wrote on X: “How the hell do you not know this if you rewatched the debate?
Diane Mantouvalos, a brand strategist and HuffPost contributor, noted that “this should have been a preemptive question, to which he could have responded, ‘I’ve seen bits of it.’ Or, ‘Not the whole thing, but enough to understand people’s concerns.'”
“If he doesn’t look, that’s imprudent in itself,” she added. “A conscientious leader would take an hour or two to evaluate performance. What does he do all day?”
The interview came just a week after Biden’s poor performance in the debate against Trump, during which he slurred his words, appeared to lose his train of thought and struggled with a raspy voice.
Democratic donors and supporters of the president saw the interview as crucial to addressing growing concerns about the president’s age and mental agility, as well as growing calls for him to drop out of the race.
Biden avoided repeating his debate mistakes in this latest interview, using it to reaffirm his commitment to staying in the race, saying only the “Lord Almighty” could make him drop out.
Attributing his debate performance to “a bad night,” Biden also ruled out taking a cognitive test or undergoing an independent medical examination to check whether he suffered from neurological problems.
Faced with poll numbers that showed Trump with a growing lead, Biden resorted to outright denial, questioning the accuracy of the data and relying on internal polls that he said showed the election was still “undecided.”
When Stephanopoulos also highlighted his low approval rating, noting that he had “never seen a president with 36% approval get reelected,” Biden again silenced him.
“Well, I don’t think that’s my approval rating – that’s not what our polls show,” the president said.
A Biden campaign spokesperson told Business Insider that the Stephanopoulos interview was just one of many moments that show Biden is the right person to run against Trump.
BI has reached out to the Biden campaign for further comment.
