On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that her experience with President Joe Biden is “so counter to the debate performance,” and she doesn’t know why we don’t ever publicly see the Biden she and others say exists behind closed doors.
Guest host Katy Tur asked, “I want to ask you…about the President and his cognitive ability. What I’ve heard from folks, voters I’ve spoken to, lawmakers who want to speak privately is that they’re worried that another four years would be too much for the President, that he wouldn’t be able to — he doesn’t have the cognitive ability to last — to be as sharp for that much longer. What’s your experience been with him?”
Granholm answered, “As a Cabinet member, my experience, it’s just been so counter to the debate performance, but also to what people — peoples’ greatest fears are. When you go into a meeting with the President where he’s going to make a decision, and the sides of the issue are presented, he is the one to ask the hardest questions. He’s done his homework. Because of his time in Washington, in office, he’s got a huge amount of wisdom, and so, he asks questions that those of us who go to brief him, [say], shoot, why didn’t I think of that? … He is totally on his game. And so, it’s frustrating to hear all of these other assessments by people who don’t know him or haven’t worked with him. So, I am very confident that, going into a second term, he will be — he will remain sharp and he will be on his game.”
Tur then cut in to ask, “We’ve heard from people like you and from those close to him that, behind closed doors, he’s so sharp, he’s asking the toughest questions. Why don’t we see that in public?”
Granholm responded, “I can’t speak to that. I don’t know why. It’s — sometimes, it’s just harder to do that. I can just tell you as somebody who was formerly elected and debated, I hated debates with a passion, because they were so not indicative of the skills that you need to be able to govern. And so, as he said, he’s not as good as he used to be. He never liked debates, I don’t think. … I have prepared him for debates in the past in previous campaigns, but not this one, but it’s just — it’s a different skill set. It’s just a different skill set. And if you — I hope there’s an opportunity for him to do more interviews, one-on-one with media. And I think people who do those interviews, they come away going, yeah, he’s totally there, I got no worries about this man.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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