Vice President Kamala Harris defended President Joe Biden after his performance in the presidential debate with Donald Trump, during a combative interview with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.
Biden, who has faced concerns about his age, faced a wave of criticism after his performance in the presidential debate with former President Donald Trump on Thursday night, when viewers noticed that he sounded hoarse, could not be heard at times and that he lacked energy.
Biden’s running mate had to admit that the Democratic president had a “slow start” during his face-off with former President Trump.
“What we saw tonight is that the president stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump on every issue that matters to the American people,” Harris said in the interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish,” Harris said. “And what became very clear throughout the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people. On substance, policy and performance, Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong.”
Cooper took issue with Harris’s final line following Biden’s debate performance, saying the president’s voice was often hoarse — which the White House later attributed to a cold — and he sometimes lost his train of thought or struggled to make his point clearly.
Cooper pointed out to Harris that members of Congress said after the debate that they were concerned about Biden’s performance.
“People can debate matters of style, but ultimately this election and who is the president of the United States has to be a matter of substance. And the contrast is clear,” Harris replied.
Harris cited Trump as ambiguous about whether or not he would accept the results of the 2024 election and also about his about-face on abortion after the end of Roe v. Wade.
Harris said, “The contrast is clear: Donald Trump lied over and over again during the debate. He will not disavow what happened on January 6th. He will not give a clear answer on whether he will respect the election results.”
The contrast is clear: Donald Trump lied over and over and over again during the debate.
He would not disavow what happened on January 6.
He would not give a clear answer on whether he would stand by the election results. pic.twitter.com/gegRg0AJub
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 28, 2024
But again, Cooper asked Harris whether Biden appeared to be the same candidate on stage Thursday as he was during the 2020 Democratic primary debatesor the same person you see at meetings every day.
“Can you say that you are not at all concerned that you saw the president’s performance tonight?” Cooper asked.
“It was a slow start, that’s obvious to everyone. I’m not going to debate that point,” Harris responded. “I’m talking about the election in November. I’m talking about one of the most important elections of our collective lifetime.”
Harris argued that Biden has been a successful president able to negotiate bipartisan deals with lawmakers on infrastructure and other areas and has a three-plus-year track record to point to, rather than pointing to what happened in a 90-minute debate.
Biden’s performance has been criticized by some Democrats, according to NBC News, who have acknowledged that will fuel talk of whether he should be replaced at the top of the Democratic ticket, ahead of the Democratic convention in August.
On MSNBC, network analyst Claire McCaskill told Rachel Maddow: “Nobody is a bigger fan of Kamala Harris than I am. And Gavin Newsom did an extraordinary job as a surrogate. …But those two people are signaling to a lot of Americans who are paying attention: ‘Why aren’t they running? ’”
After the debate, California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected calls for Biden to be removed from the Democratic ticket. “I will never turn my back on President Biden. “Never turn your back on President Biden, I don’t know any Democrat in my party who would,” he said when asked about a rumor of Democrats possibly willing to replace Biden as the party’s nominee.
With information from CNN, NBC News, Newsweek and The Hill
Keep reading:
• Trump “promises” to respect results under certain conditions; Biden denies it and calls him a bad loser
• Biden and Trump criticize each other over their immigration records in debate
• Details of the presidential debate between Biden and Trump