{"id":29186,"date":"2024-07-03T04:16:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T09:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=29186"},"modified":"2024-07-03T04:16:04","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T09:16:04","slug":"biden-quips-he-almost-fell-asleep-onstage-at-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=29186","title":{"rendered":"Biden quips he ‘almost fell asleep onstage’ at debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Joe Biden<\/a> acknowledged again Tuesday night that he underperformed at last week’s debate<\/a> while saying he \u201cwasn\u2019t very smart\u201d for having traveled extensively in the weeks leading up to the event in Atlanta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI decided to travel around the world a couple of times \u2026 shortly before the debate,” Biden said at a campaign fundraiser in McLean, Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I didn\u2019t listen to my staff \u2026 and then I almost fell asleep onstage,” he quipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an excuse but an explanation,\u201d he added. Aides previously said Biden had a cold during the debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn’t immediately clear to what extent Biden was joking about almost falling asleep. Cameras aren\u2019t allowed into his fundraisers, and the media relies upon written pool reports. Biden has a track record of making frank or unexpected comments at fundraisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In apologizing for his lackluster performance, he also stressed that it was \u201ccritical\u201d to defeat former President Donald Trump in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden last month went to France<\/a> to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day and then returned to the U.S. before he departed for the G<\/a>roup of Seven<\/a>\u2002Summit<\/a> in Italy. He then had a Los Angeles fundraiser<\/a> and later spent several days at Camp David, Maryland preparing for the debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden continues to defend his ability<\/a> to take on Trump after a debate performance punctuated by a raspy voice and rhetorical missteps that left many Democrats anxious<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, on Tuesday became the first sitting Democrat in Congress to call on Biden\u2002to withdraw<\/a> from the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a campaign rally Friday, Biden first addressed his performance from the previous night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know I\u2019m not a young man,\u201d Biden, 81, told supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina. \u201cI don\u2019t walk as easy as I used to. I don\u2019t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don\u2019t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know \u2014 I know how to tell the truth!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden is the oldest president in American history. Trump, 78, is the second oldest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Joe Biden acknowledged again Tuesday night that he underperformed at last week’s debate while saying he \u201cwasn\u2019t very smart\u201d for having traveled extensively in the weeks leading up to the event in Atlanta. \u201cI decided to travel around the world a couple of times \u2026 shortly before the debate,” Biden said at a campaign fundraiser in McLean, Virginia. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1169,27641,8669,29318],"class_list":["post-29186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-biden","tag-debates","tag-fundraisers","tag-presidential-debates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29188,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29186\/revisions\/29188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}