US President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin, on July 5, 2024.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden insisted Friday that his damaging debate performance against former President Donald Trump was just a “bad night,” and not an indication of a more serious health condition.
“I was exhausted,” Biden told ABC News‘ George Stephanopoulos, in his first face-to-face TV interview since his raspy and disconnected debate last week.
“I didn’t listen to my instincts, in terms of preparing, and [had] a bad night,” said Biden, who also referred to his performance as a “bad episode.”
When Stephanopoulos noted that Biden had returned from an overseas foreign policy trip in Europe about 11 days before the debate and spent six days at Camp David beforehand, Biden replied, “I was sick, I was feeling terrible.”
Asked if he watched the debate later, Biden briefly paused and then said, “I don’t think I did, …