President Joe Biden noticeably bristled when pressed during an interview about his debate performance last month and became visibly frustrated when asked about his decision to stay in the race.
Biden testily responded to a line of questioning during his Monday interview with NBC’s Lester Holt about his June 27 debate performance that failed to ease concerns about his mental acuity.
“Lester, look, why don’t you guys ever talk about the 18, 28 lies he told? Where are you on this? Why didn’t the press ever talk about that? Twenty-eight times it’s confirmed he lied in that debate. I had a bad, bad night. I wasn’t feeling well at all,” he told Holt when asked to assess his performance. “I screwed up.”
Biden has previously been questioned about whether he’d watched the debate in full and told Holt, again, on Monday that he has only seen select clips.
“I didn’t have to see it. I was there,” Biden shot back at Holt when pressed on whether he’d reviewed footage from the first debate. “I don’t plan on having another performance on that level.”
When asked whether Biden believed former President Barack Obama or former first lady Michelle Obama should be doing more to express confidence in his leadership, Biden quickly quashed the idea, saying it was his job to “get this done.”
“No, they’re helping me. They’ve helped me from the beginning. This is my job to get this done,” Biden said.
Holt then asked whether or not Biden had spoken with Barack Obama since the debate, to which Biden confirmed that he had not spoken to the former president for a “couple weeks” and admitted he may not have even spoken with him since the debate itself took place.
Biden also became frustrated with Holt’s questioning of his decision to stay in the race, saying he alone was making that decision.
“Me,” Biden said when asked about who is making the decision for him to continue his 2024 bid.
“Look, I’ve been doing this a long time,” Biden continued. “The idea, I’m the old guy. I am. I’m old. But I’m only three years older than Trump. Number one. And number two, my mental acuity has been pretty damn good.”
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During the interview, Biden attempted to brush back on any lingering rumors that he might make way for someone else to be the Democratic nominee by committing to take part in the second 2024 presidential debate in 2024.
“I’m going to debate him when we agreed to debate. I’m going to debate him in September,” the president declared. “I’m on the horse; where have you been? I’ve done 22 major events, thousands of people, overwhelming crowds, a lot happening.”
