'Preparation overload': Democrats defend Biden after debate flop as voter support flinches

• Democrats are making the media rounds to reshape perceptions about President Joe Biden after his stumbling debate performance.
• A new poll taken a day after the debate found that more voters' knee-jerk reaction to the debate is that Biden should not run for president.
• In the meantime, the Biden campaign has raised $33 million since debate day, more than half of which came from grassroots donors.

Democrats are making the rounds on the Sunday media circuit working to reshape perceptions about President Joe Biden after he delivered a stumbling debate performance that left his voters cringing and his party in a damage-control frenzy.

"Yes, it was a bad performance," South Carolina's Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, a close Biden ally, said on CNN's "State of the Union." "I know when I see what I call preparation overload. And that's exactly what was going on the other night."

The South Carolina Democrat followed the post-debate spin formula that has emerged from Biden supporters since the Thursday showdown: Acknowledge the fumble and then pivot to critiques of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump.

"Joe Biden should continue to run on his record. I do believe that we will find him when contrasted with the record of the four years of Trump to be exactly what we need going forward," Clyburn said.

Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton followed that structure in similar arguments on Friday.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also jumped to Biden's defense on the Sunday media junket.

Despite the full-court press, Biden's Thursday debate performance, marked by several