Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan doubts that Joe Biden could beat President Trump in a general election because of the former vice president’s low “energy.”
Ryan is running against Biden in the Democratic primary to challenge Trump in 2020. The congressman gave his critical assessment of the Democratic front-runner in a phone call Thursday with Bloomberg.
“I just think Biden is declining,” Ryan said. “I don’t think he has the energy. You see it almost daily. And I love the guy.”
Ryan later tried to walk back his public criticism, saying he thought he was on a fundraising call and not being interviewed by a reporter.
Reporters asked Ryan about his comments again at the New Hampshire Democratic convention on Saturday.
“I’m just saying that it’s unclear sometimes when he is articulating positions. There’s a lack of clarity, and I’ll leave it at that,” Ryan said. “It is a concern you’re hearing from a lot of people in the country. And I don’t think I need to bang out everybody over the head with it. It’s out there.”
Rep. @TimRyan says he doesn’t want to expand on comments he made to @bpolitics yesterday about Biden’s mental fitness: “I’m just saying that it’s unclear sometimes when he is articulating positions. There’s a lack of clarity, and I’ll leave it at that.” pic.twitter.com/TZuSYP3Bsp
— Johnny Verhovek (@JTHVerhovek) September 7, 2019
Ryan later reiterated his point during a CNN interview on Saturday, rattling off a few examples of Biden recently being “forgetful.”
“There’s a lot at stake,” he said.
Emily Larsen contributed to this report.
