Joe Biden agreed that Nancy Pelosi had a point when she asserted that she did not think the Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president should debate President Trump.
But while he recognized arguments about Trump being dishonest, he projected confidence and took a swipe at Trump.
“He doesn’t know how to debate the facts because he’s not that smart. He doesn’t know that many facts,” Biden said.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle in an interview that aired Saturday, Biden addressed arguments from some prominent Democrats and liberals that he should bow out of debating Trump. The first presidential debate is set for Tuesday.
“I don’t think that there should be any debates,” the Democratic House speaker told reporters in August. “I do not think that the president of the United States has comported himself in a way that anybody has any association with truth, evidence, data, and facts.”
“I wouldn’t legitimize a conversation with him nor a debate in terms of the presidency of the United States,” she added.
Ruhle asked Biden, “Does she have a point?”
“Well, she does,” Biden said.
He mentioned that some leading columnists have also said that Biden should not debate Trump.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman argued in July that Biden should not debate Trump unless the president agrees to terms such as live fact-checking. Clinton administration press secretary Joe Lockhart said in August that Biden should skip the debates because of Trump’s lies. Days later, journalist Elizabeth Drew wrote in the New York Times that the debates should be scrapped altogether.
The opinion pieces fueled theories among right-wing commentators that Biden was being primed to skip a debate against Trump, even as his campaign deemed it an “imaginary controversy” and Biden repeatedly said that he could “hardly wait” to debate Trump.
“Look, the people know the president’s a liar. I mean, they know that,” Biden said in the interview Saturday. “It’s going to come as a surprise. And so, I’m prepared to go out and make my case as to why I think he has failed and why I think the answers I have to proceed will help the American people and the American economy and make us safer internationally.”
Biden then gave a preview of what he expects from Trump in the debate while taking a swipe at the president’s intellect.
“My guess is, it’s going to be just straight attack. They’re going to be mostly personal. That’s the only thing he knows how to do. He doesn’t know how to debate the facts because he’s not that smart. He doesn’t know that many facts,” Biden said. “He doesn’t know much about foreign policy or domestic policy. He doesn’t know much about the detail.”
