A CNN panel was taken aback by First Lady Jill Biden’s statement that President Joe Biden was himself on the debate stage Thursday night. During a rally in North Carolina on Friday, Jill Biden’s remarks sparked a discussion among the panelists. Erica Hill described Jill Biden as “the president’s biggest champion” and one of the few people who could have a frank conversation with him that many believe is necessary.
Hill quoted Jill Biden saying, “I mean, it’s not a false statement,” replied a bewildered Kucinich. “But I think that she also said, you know, someone who was telling truth while former President Trump told lies. This is a very positive spin on what we saw last night. And the idea that that is who Joe Biden is, I don’t know that’s what she meant.”
Hill then asked if there should have been a greater effort to alter public perception of the debate performance. Kucinich responded that such nuanced explanations are challenging at a rally, but mentioned that the campaign attempted to mitigate concerns by attributing Biden’s performance to a cold during the debate. Despite these efforts, Kucinich emphasized the high stakes and the difficulty of changing people’s perceptions of the debate.
“Are you surprised at all that there is not more of an effort to try to change, perhaps, people’s minds about what they did see last night. She glossed over that. Could she have done that here?” inquired Hill.
Brianna Keilar added that many viewers will likely retain their initial impressions of the debate, regardless of subsequent explanations.
“Not at a rally. I don’t think at a rally you can have the kind of nuance that you would need to explain this, but you saw the campaign try to do it last night,” said Kucinich. “And, you know, midway through the debate, they were saying he had a cold. Which again, okay, fine, but this is the president of the United States. The stakes were so high last night, and you can gloss over it as much as you want. You can’t tell people to see something that they did not see.
Yeah, and a lot of people will not unsee and unhear what they experienced watching that debate.”
