Biden says he “almost fell asleep” during debate after world trip

By Steve Holland

MCLEAN, Virginia (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden acknowledged on Tuesday that his performance at last Thursday’s presidential debate was not the best, but attributed that to jet lag after two trips abroad in early June.

Biden is facing increasing questions about his 2024 re-election bid following his shaky debate performance last week, and a fellow Democrat in the House publicly called on him to drop out of the race on Tuesday.

At a campaign rally in McLean, Virginia, on Tuesday night, Biden acknowledged that the debate with his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, did not go well.

“I didn’t have my best night, but you know, I wasn’t very smart,” Biden said at the campaign fundraiser without a teleprompter. “I decided to travel around the world a couple of times, crossing about 100 time zones … before … the debate.”

“I didn’t listen to my staff and I came back and almost fell asleep on stage,” he said. “That’s not an excuse, but an explanation.”

Biden visited two countries in France and Italy within two weeks last month, flying overnight from the G7 summit in Bari, Italy, to Los Angeles to appear at a fundraiser with former President Barack Obama on June 15 before returning to Washington the following day.

He then spent six days at Camp David to prepare for the June 27 debate.

White House officials have attributed Biden’s sluggish performance during the debate to a cold. Biden did not mention being ill during Tuesday’s fundraiser.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll that ended Tuesday found one in three Democrats think Biden should give up his re-election campaign after the debate. However, no prominent elected Democrat fares better than Biden in a hypothetical face-off against Trump.

The two-day poll found that both Trump (78) and Biden (81) continue to have the support of 40% of registered voters, suggesting that Biden has not lost ground since the debate. Election Day is November 5.

(This story has been resubmitted to correct the hyperlink in paragraph 9)

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Leslie Adler)