Biden campaign chair and longtime ally Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) bristled when CNN anchor Kasie Hunt interrupted his answer about President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance.
The big story to emerge from CNN’s debate Thursday night was the panic after deadly early stumbles from President Biden set the tone for debate coverage — though his performance improved as the debate went on. Calls for Biden to drop out have dominated post-debate coverage.
The president’s performance at a debate watch party following the debate, at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, and at a Stonewall commemoration over the weekend contrasted sharply with what viewers saw during the debate. The president and his family reportedly held a discussion this weekend in which he was encouraged to fight on.
President Biden’s campaign has also sought to highlight that Trump rattled off as many as 50 falsehoods without being challenged, which has been a secondary storyline of the debate.
On Monday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Coons referenced that string of falsehoods while defending Biden and took exception when Hunt cut in to disagree mid-answer:
KASIE HUNT: What do you say to people who feel like they are being gaslit or somehow lied to or told that what they seem to see with their own eyes isn’t actually the case?
SEN. CHRIS COONS: So here’s what we’re seeing on the screen that you’re showing right now, a president who is frankly thunderstruck by just how aggressively Donald Trump is lying about everything from January 6th to when there’s a record deficit. It was under Trump, not under Biden. To the impact of his proposed–
KASIE HUNT: He looked like that from the moment he walked out on stage before anything ever came out of Trump’s mouth!
SEN. CHRIS COONS: Kasie, If I could finish my sentence, then I’ll let you ask the next question!
And, where the next day, at a campaign rally in North Carolina, he gave a forceful and engaging and sharp speech.
I think everyone’s entitled to have a bad night. And I prefer to Maureen Dowd’s column, if we’re going to compare columns in different newspapers, E.J. Dion’s column where he basically said, what is it we saw on that stage, a bad night or a sign of a bad future?
I think that President Biden needs to reassure those who were paying attention by giving more and more of the sorts of interviews and impromptu events and engagements that put him in America’s living room in the first place.
Watch above via CNN This Morning.
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