Biden aides start pointing fingers: ‘Over-prepared when what he needed was rest’ – Washington Examiner

Thursday’s first presidential debate in Atlanta was President Joe Biden’s opportunity to put voters at ease, but reports suggest some people are questioning the amount of time he spent preparing for it.

For seven days, Biden was not seen by the public as he was preparing for the debate at Camp David, which one person in Biden’s circle told Axios came at his detriment. 

“He was over-prepared and relying on minutiae when all that mattered was vigor and energy,” a Biden adviser told the outlet. “They prepared him for the wrong debate. He was over-prepared when what he needed was rest. It’s confounding.”

Rather than proving Biden was ready to go toe-to-toe with former President Donald Trump and beat him a second time, his stilted performance struck supporters and critics alike as a showing of his vulnerabilities.

At times speaking in a whisper, the 81-year-old president missed his chance to ease voters’ concerns that his age wouldn’t be an issue, according to Van Jones, a one-time adviser to then-President Barack Obama and a strong supporter of Biden.

“He’s a good man, he loves his country, he’s doing the best that he can,” Jones said. “But he had a chance … tonight to restore confidence of the country and of the base, and he failed to do that. And I think there are a lot of people who are going to want to see him take a different course now.”

David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, said on MSNBC that Biden’s performance was a “DEFCON 1 moment.”

Even Vice President Kamala Harris said that the president had a “slow start” but said that he had finished strong. 

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While Democrat strategists and analysts speak negatively about Biden’s debate performance; there is no sign that Biden will be dropping out of the race.

However, if Biden were to exit the race, it would put Democrats on a time crunch to find a suitable candidate to replace him in the election.