During CNN’s debate coverage on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris responded to consternation among Democrats about President Joe Biden’s performance during the debate and a question on whether she has worries about Biden’s performance by stating Biden had “a slow start,” and dodged on if Biden’s performance was a drastic change from what he was like in 2020.
Host Anderson Cooper asked, “CNN’s John King has described panic inside the Democratic Party right now because of President Biden’s performance in tonight’s debate, he’s been hearing from Democratic lawmakers and others around the country, some within your own party are wondering if President Biden should even step aside. What do you say to that?”
Harris responded, “Well, listen first of all, what we saw tonight is the President making a very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all of the issues that matter to the American people. Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish. And what became very clear through the course of the night, is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people, on substance, on policy, on performance, Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong, and that cannot be debated.”
Cooper then cut in to say, “[T]he President’s performance tonight, clearly, was disappointing for his supporters. CNN is reporting Democratic lawmakers watching the debate were worried about the President’s performance. One said it was a disaster, another called it a trainwreck. Those are Democrats, especially worried that Biden did not punch back on Trump’s lies.”
Harris responded, “Listen, people can debate on style points, but ultimately, this election and who is the president of the United States has to be about substance, and the contrast is clear. Look at what happened during the course of the debate. Donald Trump lied over and over and over again, as he is wont to do, 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 this November, he went back and forth about where he stands on one of the most critical issues of freedom in America, which is the right of women to make decisions about their own body. He has been completely ambiguous and all over the place about where he stands on that issue, despite the fact that he hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and that’s exactly what they did. And…we commemorated the two-year anniversary of Dobbs, wherein women across our country have been denied emergency health care, have suffered miscarriages to the point that –.”
Cooper then cut in to say, “All that may be true, but the President of the United States was not able to make that case to Donald Trump on the stage tonight. You debated against then-Vice President…Biden four years ago, and he was a very different person on the stage four years ago when you debated him, you must — that’s certainly true, is it not?”
Harris responded, “Anderson the point has to be performance, in terms of what a president does.”
Cooper also asked, “But this was a debate that your campaign wanted. You pushed for this debate, at this moment, you can’t honestly say — can you say that you are not concerned, at all, having watched the President’s performance tonight?”
Harris answered, “It was a slow start, that’s obvious to everyone. I’m not going to debate that point. I’m talking about the choice in November.”
Later, after playing video of the two candidates talking about abortion during the debate, Cooper asked, “To someone who watched this debate tonight and has serious concerns about the President of the United States, what do you say to them about what they just saw?”
Harris responded, “They saw the fact, they witnessed the fact that, if Donald Trump were elected to be president of the United States this November, he will sign a national abortion ban. Take him at his word, he said he would when he was President before. He said, if it came to his desk, he’d sign it, there’s no reason to believe anything would change.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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