Jim Clyburn pins blame on Biden’s debate performance on ‘preparation overload’

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) believes some of President Joe Biden ’s poor debate performance was the result of being over-prepared for the event.

On CNN’s State of the Union with Dana Bash, Clyburn said what the nation witnessed on Thursday’s debate was the result of Biden's preparation techniques. Clyburn, who is currently the co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign, has a close relationship with the president and was crucial to his 2020 campaign's primary win in South Carolina.

"Debate preparation can be tough, but you've got to really do a good job of preparing the candidate not just with information, but with style, but with deflection. The kinds of things that we did not see with Joe Biden the other night and saw it four years ago," Clyburn said.

While the debate performance had little effect on Democrats and Republicans already locked into their respective candidates, both campaigns viewed Thursday night as a way to bring independents and undecided voters to their side. When asked about the effect of Biden’s bad performance on those voters, Clyburn deflected by saying voters should look at both men’s records.

"I would say to them [independents/undecided] take into account the record. Yes, it was a bad performance. I've been around these things, I've been around debate preparation before, and I know when I see what I call 'preparation overload,' and that's exactly what was going on the other night. I saw Joe Biden grasping for words and phrases and even numbers that he was loaded up with," Clyburn said.

“The next day, he gets to North Carolina, he's free-wheeling and he captivated the audience," Clyburn said, to which Bash responded she believed Biden had a teleprompter during his North Carolina rally Friday.

Clyburn said he is standing by Biden as the Democratic nominee and urged voters to look at the track records of both Biden and Trump rather than focusing on the optics of one poor night.

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"I do not believe that Joe Biden has a problem leading for the next four years, as he's done for the last three and half years. I always say that the best predictor of future behavior is past performance, and when we look at the past performance of these two men that are the front runners of their party, we get a lot of indications about what their future behavior would be,” Clyburn said.

“So Joe Biden can continue to run on his record, I do believe that people will find him when contrasted with the four years of Trump, that will be exactly what we need going forward, not just domestically but internationally as well,” Clyburn continued.