President Biden has a cold, a White House official told The Hill amid the first presidential debate.
“He has a cold, started slow but obviously had started to hit his stride,” another source, who is familiar with Biden's campaign, told The Hill.
Biden started the debate speaking very quietly, and the campaign was hit with questions about what was considered a slow start.
He faces a high-stakes moment with this debate, challenged to ease voters' concerns about his age and whether he has the mental fitness for another four years in office. Biden, 81, would be 86 at the end of a second term, and former President Trump would be 82.
The president lost his train of thought early on in the debate, searching for the word “Medicare” at the end of his sentence.
“Making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with, the eh, COVID. Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with,” he said, freezing up. “Look…Medicare.”
Trump replied to the president's trip-up moment, saying, "he did beat Medicare. He beat it to death, and he's destroying Medicare."
Moments later, Biden appeared to misspeak at the end of an answer about immigration. Trump took a jab at him, saying, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
Later in the debate, Biden seemed to catch his stride, speaking forcefully about Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol and talking about how to keep Social Security solvent and his plans on making the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.
This story was updated at 10:33 p.m.
