Joe Biden called President Trump’s performance at Tuesday’s raucous debate a “national embarrassment” and said he would participate in the next two contests but wants the guidelines strengthened to limit interruptions.
“Maybe I shouldn’t say this but the president of the United States conducted himself the way he did — I think was just a national embarrassment,” the former vice president told reporters in his first live comments on the debate as he did a whistle-stop train tour through the swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
But the Democratic presidential candidate said Trump did what he “expected him to do.”
“Last night, he announced what he was going to do. … I think the phrase was now he can become really vicious. I think that was his phrase,” Biden said.
“Look, last night reinforced for me why I got [into] this race in the first place. Last night, I said when I got into this race that we’re in a battle for the soul of this country,” he said, before hitting the president on his lack of a sustained coronavirus response and his claims that a massive mail-in voting effort would lead to fraud.
Trump, who verbally sparred with both Biden and the debate moderator, Fox News’ Chris Wallace, said at times during the chaotic contest, he felt they were teaming up against him.
He continued firing broadsides at them the morning after the debate in Cleveland.
“Nobody wants Sleepy Joe as a leader, including the Radical Left (which he lost last night!). He disrespected Bernie, effectively calling him a loser!” Trump wrote in a posting on Twitter Wednesday.
In another, he wrote: “Chris had a tough night. Two on one was not surprising, but fun. Many important points made, like throwing Bernie, AOC PLUS 3, and the rest, to the wolves! Radical Left is dumping Sleepy Joe. Zero Democrat enthusiasm, WEAK Leadership!”
Biden, asked at the stop in Alliance, Ohio, whether there is a scenario in which he would pull out of the next two debates, said no, but he would like to see the Commission on Presidential Debates shore up the rules.
“He not only attacked me constantly and my family but he attacked the moderator and again on his tweets this morning or last night,” Biden said.
“I just hope there’s a way in which the debate commission can control the ability of us to answer the question without interruption. I’m not going to speculate on what happens in a second or third debate,” he continued.
“My hope is … the question gets asked to Trump. He has the microphone. He has two minutes to answer the question. No one else has a microphone. I don’t know what the actual rules are going to be literally, but that’s what seemed to me to make some sense, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Biden will continue his “Build It Back Better” train tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania that includes stops in Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Latrobe and Johnstown.