Biden downplays poor debate performance, says it’s not indicative of larger issues
CNN
President Joe Biden presented further excuses and took ownership for his poor debate performance, saying he was “sick” and “feeling terrible.”
President Joe Biden on Friday downplayed his poor performance in last week’s debate, offering additional excuses for the showing and adding that it was his fault alone. The president said in an interview on ABC that he was “sick” and “feeling terrible” before the debate. Asked whether it was a bad episode or a sign of a more serious condition, Biden dismissed those concerns. “It was a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing, and I had a bad night,” he said in an interview taped Friday afternoon with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. He added, “Because I was sick – I was feeling terrible. As a matter of fact, the docs with me I asked if they did a Covid test, they were trying to figure out what’s wrong. They did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, you know, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold.” The conversation marked Biden’s first televised interview since his debate performance, a high-stakes moment for his political future as a mounting list of Democrats – lawmakers, donors and voters – express concerns about the viability of his candidacy. The president said he has not watched a replay of his performance. When he was asked whether he knew how badly it was going, he said it was “nobody’s fault but mine.”
One month until voters head to the polls, the Justice Department is caught in a thorny intersection of election-year politics and continuing the work of the nation’s top law enforcement agency – trying to maintain its reputation for impartiality while also continuing to pursue the prosecution of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate.
Georgia prosecutors urge Supreme Court to keep Mark Meadows’ election subversion case in state court
State prosecutors in Georgia who are pursuing election subversion charges against former President Donald Trump urged the US Supreme Court on Thursday to allow their case against his former chief of staff Mark Meadows to continue in state court.
Former House GOP conference chair Liz Cheney and former Trump White House aides Alyssa Farah Griffin, Cassidy Hutchinson and Sarah Matthews will make the case against the reelection of former President Donald Trump in a fireside chat in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, October 9, CNN has exclusively learned.
Former first lady Melania Trump said in a new video posted Thursday that she believed there was “no room for compromise” when it comes to a woman’s “individual freedom,” after The Guardian reported excerpts from her forthcoming book in which she says she supports abortion rights “free from any intervention or pressure from the government.”