Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) said on Wednesday he only watched parts of last month's debate between former President Trump and President Biden, but believes the incumbent is the "best opportunity" to defeat the former president.
Fox News host Jesse Watters, speaking with Fetterman, asked the senator, "You saw the debate, just like we all saw the debate, and that didn't change your mind?"
"I saw parts of it; I was actually flying back from Israel at that point," Fetterman answered. "And then when I landed, and I started to get some of the texts, and then at that point, I realized that I really wanted to get on social media and defend our president after that."
When Watters asked again if he had watched the entire debate, Fetterman said, "I didn't. I saw… perhaps, the ones, the most difficult ones, of course."
"But, for me, and I know a lot of the people typically that are watching Fox realize that Donald Trump may have had a great day and a great debate on that," Fetterman said. "But what I...would like to remind people that some people thought that Donald Trump hadn't some of the kinds of difficulty that perhaps Joe Biden [had], but he was saying things that were untrue, or he was saying things that really, I think, aren't really consistent with some of the values of a majority of people."
Biden's debate performance against Trump last month raised concerns within the Democratic Party about his ability to defeat the former president and serve another term.
Fetterman has been a vocal advocate of the president amid the fallout and shortly before his interview with Watters, told CNN he strongly disagreed with Sen. Peter Welch (D-V.t.), who became the first Senate Democrat to publicly call on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
Nine House Democrats have publicly urged Biden to step aside from the 2024 race, including Reps. Lloyd Doggett (Texas), Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), Seth Moulton (Mass.), Mike Quigley (Ill.), Angie Craig (Minn.), Mikie Sherrill (N.J.), Adam Smith (Wash.), Pat Ryan (N.Y.) and Earl Blumenauer (Ore.).
Senate Democrats expressed their doubts about Biden's ability to beat Trump at a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Several senators emerging from the meeting Tuesday said Biden’s strong determination to remain atop the ticket had mostly settled the debate for now.
Biden has rejected calls to drop out and insists he is staying in the race. He urged congressional Democrats in a letter Monday to unite behind his candidacy.
Fetterman pointed to his own experiences with Biden, who he said was "normal" and "engaged" at campaign events over the past year.
"So, I really want to remind everybody that Joe Biden has done a really good job as president and I fundamentally am going to remain loyal to that," he said.
Three of Biden's top political advisers are slated to meet with Senate Democrats on Thursday to hear their concerns about Biden's viability as a candidate.
