Rep. Jim Clyburn, who played a pivotal role in securing President Joe Biden’s nomination four years ago, attributed the president’s poor debate performance on Thursday to “preparation overload.”
“It was a bad performance. I’ve been around these things. I’ve been a part of debate preparation before, and I know when I see what I call preparation overload,” the South Carolina Democrat told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And that’s exactly what was going on the other night.”
Clyburn explained, “I saw Joe Biden grasping for words, phrases, and even numbers that he was overloaded with. The next day, he gets to North Carolina, he’s freewheeling, and he captivated the audience.”
Bash, who co-hosted the debate with Jake Tapper, pointed out that Biden had a teleprompter at the post-debate rally in North Carolina. However, Clyburn continued to defend Biden, acknowledging it was a bad night for the president but emphasizing that he has had a great four years in office. He also contrasted Biden with former President Donald Trump.
Clyburn criticized CNN for not fact-checking Trump during the debate, stating that the former president lied about 30 times on various topics.
“The debate depends on what the rules are. I don’t like debates where nobody fact-checks. You just say what you want to say, even if it’s a lie — the guy told over 30 lies and nobody checked him. They said it was up to Joe Biden to do that. I’m not too sure,” Clyburn said.
“So that to me was not the way to plan the debate. And whoever agreed to that format should reconsider their approach.”
Bash noted that the Biden team had agreed to the debate format.