Despite publicly defending President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Michigan’s Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer has admitted that she didn’t actually watch the historic event late last month.
After the June 27 presidential debate with President Donald Trump, Whitmer was among several high-profile Democrats who spoke out to defend Biden after his behavior exposed his severely degraded mental and physical state on national television.
However, Whitmer, who is also a national co-chair of the president’s re-election campaign, admitted during an interview with late-night host Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night that she was too busy to watch the debate between Trump and Biden.
Whitmer appeared on the show to promote her new book and discuss the Democratic Party’s worries surrounding Biden.
The Michigan governor has been floated as a potential replacement candidate for Democrats if Biden were to drop out of the race.
Nevertheless, she is currently insisting that she fully supports the president’s re-election bid as some Democrats call for him to step aside.
“Did you watch the debate?” Colbert asked.
“I’ve seen clips of the debate,” Whitmer said.
“You didn’t watch the debate?” Colbert pressed.
Whitmer laughed and replied, “I was actually out on the West Coast with a couple of my colleagues [for] a fundraiser.”
“I forgot, they don’t have television in California,” Colbert quipped.
When Colbert asked Whitmer about her reaction to Biden’s performance, she changed the subject.
Instead of answering the question, she told the late-night host, “I like your tie.”
WATCH:
Biden campaign co-chair @GovWhitmer claims she didn't actually watch Biden's debate.
She "watched clips" because she was at a fundraiser, and concluded Biden had a "lousy performance". pic.twitter.com/BPoE71JFmr
— The Midwesterner (@Th_Midwesterner) July 11, 2024
Whitmer did not elaborate on which “clips” she saw, indicating that she could have been presented with cherry-picked moments from the debate that didn’t expose his weaknesses.
Later in the interview, Whitmer did finally acknowledge that Biden’s debate performance was “lousy.”
Yet, she continued to defend her party’s current leader.
“I think that the debate rattled a lot of people, right?” she said.
“It was a lousy performance.
“I don’t think anyone’s disputing that.
“I spent some time with the president in the White House with a number of my colleagues shortly after the debate, I talked to him this past weekend with all of the other vice chairs of his campaign, co-chairs, and, you know, he’s up for this.”
“He’s up for the job for the next four years, and I am working my tail off on his behalf,” Whitmer added.
In a USA Today interview published on Tuesday, Whitmer argued that the debate was only “a 90-minute snapshot of someone who has been back and forth to Europe twice in one week.”
Further defending the president, she added that Biden keeps a “really aggressive calendar.”
Michigan, a vital swing state in the presidential election, is now slightly leaning in Trump’s direction, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls.
The state fell to Biden in 2020 after Trump narrowly won Michigan over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
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