President Joe Biden told attendees at a fundraiser in McLean, Virginia on Tuesday that he “wasn’t very smart” in the lead-up to his poor debate performance last week—blaming several recent trips to and from Europe for wearing him out in the days leading up to last Thursday’s disaster.
“I wasn’t very smart,” he told donors, according to several reporters in the room. “I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through I don’t know how many time zones — for real I think it [was] 15 time zones… I didn’t listen to my staff.”
“And then I came back and nearly fell asleep on stage,” Biden said, acknowledging his subpar showing.