President Joe Biden told attendees at a fundraiser in McLean, Virginia on Tuesday that he “wasn’t very smart” in the lead-up to his poor debate performance last week—blaming several recent trips to and from Europe for wearing him out in the days leading up to last Thursday’s disaster.
“I wasn’t very smart,” he told donors, according to several reporters in the room. “I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through I don’t know how many time zones — for real I think it [was] 15 time zones… I didn’t listen to my staff.”
“And then I came back and nearly fell asleep on stage,” Biden said, acknowledging his subpar showing.
“It’s not an excuse, but an explanation,” he added, according to RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann.
After returning from a pair of overseas trips, two days of debate preparations were nixed from Biden’s schedule, The New York Times reported Tuesday. After resting at home, he ultimately had six days of practice at Camp David prior to the televised debate on June 27.
During the debate, which began to go poorly for Biden almost immediately, his campaign reached out to reporters saying that the president had a cold. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said at a Tuesday press briefing that the president is still under the weather.
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