“I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple of times … shortly before the debate,” President Joe Biden said at a fundraiser in McLean, Va. | Evan Vucci/APPresident Joe Biden is now chalking up his fumbling debate performance to a heavy travel schedule ahead of the face-off with Donald Trump — the latest in a series of explanations for an episode that has caused some Democrats to call for him to drop his reelection bid.
“I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple of times … shortly before the debate,” Biden said at a fundraiser in McLean, Virginia. “I didn’t listen to my staff and I came back and then I almost fell asleep on stage.” He assumed responsibility for what happened on the debate stage, telling donors at the Virginia event that it “wasn’t very smart” to travel “around the world a couple times” before the debate.