After the presidential debate, Texas Democrats seem to acknowledge that President Joe Biden didn’t give his best performance against former President Donald Trump.
There have been numerous concerns about Biden’s age and ability to serve a second term, and many people echoed those concerns in the presidential debate, where the president seemed to lose his train of thought on several occasions.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas Democrats seemed to acknowledge this.
“It wasn’t a good performance,”U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, said. “I don’t think that anybody’s going to say that it was a good performance. It certainly was not.”
Biden struggled to finish his arguments, often pausing and even ending sentences with unintelligible words.
Other Democrats, however, tried to keep the focus on Trump’s numerous false claims and provocative statements.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, who is co-chair of Biden’s campaign said Trump comments were “horrific.”
“Last night was not the night that I had hoped for, that any of us had hoped for,” she said. “But I think there needs to be a real conversation about the things that Donald Trump said. It is beyond vile.”
Trump usually made provocative statements against Biden, vowing to prosecute him if he wins the election and calling him stupid for his handling of the economy, but also made several false claims.
For example, Trump suggested that Democrats would seek to allow abortions in “the eight month, the ninth month and even after birth, after birth.” Abortion after birth is called infanticide and is criminalized in every state.
Trump also claimed that the U.S. had the greatest economy in history during his term, but the truth is that economic growth was stronger under Biden, and that is still below the nearly 4% average growth during Bill Clinton’s two terms.
“It’s not like Trump was stellar last night,” Rep. Veasey said.
Other Democrats in competitive races have reserved their comments on the debate, such as U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who is trying to unseat Ted Cruz in the Senate.