Representative Jim Clyburn, who helped the president Joe Biden Four years after securing the nomination, the president said Sunday that his poor debate performance on Thursday was due to “preparation overload.”
“It was a poor performance. I’ve been around these things. I’ve been in debate prep before, and I know when I see what I call prep overload,” the South Carolina Democrat told host Dana Bash in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And that’s exactly what happened the other night.”
Clyburn added: “I saw Joe Biden repeating words and phrases and even numbers that were bothering him. The next day he arrives in North Carolina. He’s freewheeling and he captivated the audience.”
Bash, who hosted Thursday’s debate with Jake Tapper, noted that Biden had a teleprompter at the post-debate rally in North Carolina. But Clyburn continued to defend Biden, noting that it was a bad night for Biden but a great four years for the president. He also tried to draw a pointed comparison between Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Clyburn blamed CNN for failing to fact-check Trump, who CNN says has now lied about 30 times during the debate on virtually every topic imaginable.
“The debate, I think it all depends on what the rules are. I don’t like the debate where no one does any fact checking. You just say what you want to say, you know it’s a lie – the man told some strange lies and no one checked him on it and said it was Joe Biden’s job to do. I’m not so sure,” Clyburn said.
“So that was not the way for me to plan the debate. And the person who did that has agreed to it and should really think about what he or she is doing.”
Bash noted that the Biden team agreed to the debate format.
