Fetterman defends Biden debate flub amid calls for president to drop out of the race

Joe Biden’s defenders rallied to his side on Sunday across the cable news circuit and rejected calls for the presidentto drop out of the 2024 race.

Chief among them was John Fetterman, whose own rocky debate performance in 2022 following a stroke was thought by some to have been a death knell of the now-senator’s campaign. Fetterman beat his opponent, Dr Mehmet Oz, despite enduring Republican attacks labelling him brain damaged and unable to carry out the basic functions of his office.

Biden’s debate performance on Thursday against Donald Trump has been seen as a disaster by the political world. Polls have shown that the segment of voters who believe the president does not have the required mental fitness for the job has grown substantially, with a CBS poll finding only 27% of those polled believe Biden has the mental and cognitive health required to serve as president.

The Pennsylvania senator appeared on Fox News Sunday, where host Shannon Bream asked him about calls from Democratic supporters as well as media outlets such as The New York Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution arguing that the president should immediately step aside and allow Democrats to pick a successor.

“There’s no value in any of those things,” Fetterman told Bream, after mockingly clutching his cheeks and quipping, “oh no!”.

“There was the same kind of a freakout after my debate, and in fact I might even say that I had a more difficult evening than the president did. And here I am right now, having this conversation.”

He went on to argue that Biden remained the only Democratic candidate with a proven electoral history of victory against Donald Trump, an argument the Biden campaign itself tried to make to supporters on Friday in a fundraising