“There are no discussions like that whatsoever,” said Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler, when asked aboard Air Force One if campaign officials were discussing the president dropping out. He also said Biden intends to participate in the next planned debate, scheduled for Sept. 10.

On the Hill, Democrats were willing to concede that the debate, as Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar put it, “was not the night any of us wanted.” But she then pivoted to what she contended was a night of falsehoods and lies from Biden’s twice-impeached and once-convicted predecessor.

“I think there needs to be a real conversation about the things that Donald Trump said. It is beyond vile — and that ... should be unacceptable,” Escobar said.

Rep Troy Carter, D-La., said of Biden, “I think he can recover. I think that the facts will bear out.” He faulted the CNN moderators for “not point-for-point calling these things out.”

“You saw a president that ... articulated the facts and ... has receipts — not just promises made promises, but kept, versus the other guy who just repeatedly didn’t tell the truth,” Carter added. “It was frustrating for anybody who cared to listen, that Trump just didn’t tell the truth repeatedly.”

Specifically, Escobar pointed to Trump’s claims that Central and South American countries are sending individuals from their asylums and prisons into the United States. But she didn’t answer directly when asked why Biden was unable to counter that claim on Thursday night.

Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., described the Thursday night showdown this way: “Two candidates had really crappy performances at last night’s debate.”

Casten continued, “One of them had a crappy performance because he was a terrible president and he lied about everything about his past and history. The other one had a crappy performance because he has an amazing record to run on and seemed to have not even prepared for the debate. And it’s, I think, it’s frustrating. Because we all know how competent Biden is, we all know how good he is in those rooms. And he wasn’t prepared.”

Biden repeatedly struggled to speak clearly and finish his points despite spending a week at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, preparing with a group of his most trusted aides. White House aides said Thursday night that the president had a cold and the president later told pool reporters, during an unscheduled stop at a Waffle House, that he had a sore throat.

The duo was face-to-face for the first time since a pandemic-era 2020 debate and traded barbs in Atlanta as they stood just a few feet apart on a CNN-assembled set with no live audience. They battled during the prime-time spectacle on issues ranging from abortion to the economy to immigration to foreign policy to their golf games.

...continued

©2024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.