Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on CNN Thursday night after the first 2024 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump and sparred with anchor Anderson Cooper over Biden’s performance. The president was criticized for his raspy voice and seemingly confused speech pattern, leading many analysts across cable news to report that Democrats are nervous about how the debate will impact the coming election, with some even whispering about potentially replacing Biden with a different candidate.
“Yes there was a slow start but it was a strong finish,” Harris allowed on CNN. When pressed by Cooper about the fact that the president’s performance tonight “clearly was disappointing,” Harris rebuffed its impact on the election.
“Listen, people can debate on style points, but ultimately this election and who is going to be the president of the United States is about substance,” she said before laying into Trump’s lies.
Cooper insisted that Biden was not able to effectively make the case against Trump in the debate, to which Harris replied, “Anderson, the point has to be performance in terms of what a president does.”
Cooper interjected, “But that is what’s scary for people watching.”
A heated Harris then responded, “I got the point you made about a one-and-a-half-hour debate tonight. I’m talking about three and a half years of performance in work that has been historic.” The vice president then vociferously defended Biden’s record as president before adding once more, “I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three and a half years of performance.”
When asked if she could defend Biden’s performance during the debate, an irritated Harris responded, “It was a slow start, that’s obvious to everyone. I’m not going to debate that point. I’m talking about the choice in November.”
After the vice president outlined the stakes of the election, Cooper responded, “Neither person on that stage tonight made the argument as coherently as you just did.”
Cooper asked Harris what she would tell viewers nervous about what they saw tonight. “They witnessed the fact that if Donald Trump were elected to be president of the United States this November, he will sign a national abortion ban,” she said, clearly fired up about what’s at stake.
The vice president appeared on MSNBC later Thursday night for a much shorter (and genial) interview in which she was not asked about worries over Biden’s debate performance. Rachel Maddow was able to get in two questions, but they focused on the stakes of the election and the abortion portion of the debate.
Watch Harris’ CNN appearance in the video above.
