Former New York Rep. Charlie Rangel (D) said he had “never been more shocked and embarrassed” by a presidential debate than what he saw during the presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
During an interview on New York WABC 770 AM radio’s The Cats Roundtable, 94-year-old Rangel stated that both candidates had “terrible” performances during the presidential debate.
“Quite frankly, I have never been more shocked and embarrassed by any presidential debate, as I was last Thursday,” Rangel stated. “The truth of the matter is, I have never seen America have two candidates who performed as terrible as both of them did.”
Rangel, who had also served as the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee went on to describe Trump as being “a convicted felon” with “no respect for the truth,” questions, or morality, while Biden was described as appearing “so damn confused.”
“One, a convicted felon who has no respect for the truth, for the questions, for morality,” Rangel, who served as a New York Congressman from 1971 to 2017, added. “The other seemed so damn confused I didn’t even know whether he knew where the hell he was at in terms of responding to the moderator.”
During the presidential debate, Biden appeared to look confused, frozen, was unable to get through his prepared closing statement without making errors, and brought up debunked and false claims such as the “suckers and losers” claim and the “very fine people” hoax.
After the debate, several members of the media, Democrat officials, and voters floated the idea of replacing Biden and began questioning whether Biden was able to serve another term as president.
Several donors were reported to have backed out of attending an event with Biden, while others were reported to have called for Biden to drop out of the race.
Some donors in Hollywood were also sent into a panic after Biden’s debate performance and reportedly gave an ultimatum calling for Biden to “drop out” of the race or they would not be “giving any more money.”
“I saw on Friday, a speech that was given by Joe Biden, and I wondered, he was for fiery, so on point, so articulate,” Rangel added. “He was like, better than he was at the State of the Union. And, I wondered, ‘Where the hell was that Joe Biden?'”
The day after the presidential debate, Biden held a rally in North Carolina where he admitted that he did not “walk as easy,” “speak as smoothly,” or “debate as well,” as he used to.