Democrat Adam Schiff Dodges On Whether Biden’s Team Lied to People About ‘His Capacities’: Made ‘The Right Decision’ to ‘Get Out’
California Democrat and former Representative Sen. Adam Schiff dodged a question from NBC’s Kristen Welker Sunday on whether campaign officials or advisers to then-President Joe Biden in 2024 were dishonest about his fitness and mental “capacities” before the “devastating debate performance” against President Donald Trump last year.
On NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker on Sunday, Schiff spoke with Welker at length about the economy, Republicans, and President Donald Trump. But when it came to Democrats and the presidential campaign he was less forthcoming.
Partway through the interview which had, to that point, focused on Trump and tariffs, Welker said that she did want to ask “about the Democratic party” as well.
Welker brought up the book from former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain, who wrote among other things that during debate prep, Biden “didn’t know what Trump had been saying and couldn’t grasp what the back and forth was” due to his diminished capacities.
At the time of that prep, Democrats and many media figures were still insisting there was no problem. Because of this and other reports from within the administration revealing insiders knew he was having issues, Welker asked Schiff if someone was lying to the public.
“Do you think that former President Biden’s advisors misled the American people about his capacities?” she asked.
Schiff sidestepped a direct answer, instead notably leaving open the possibility that the Biden team did in fact mislead the American people.
“It’s hard for me to gauge what the closest advisors to the president were seeing at the time,” Schiff said, although the question was about a close adviser saying what he saw at the time. “I can only speak to the interactions that I had with him, which were, you know, in the months leading up to his getting out of the race, largely ceremonial occasions.”
He then stretched his reply into praise for then-vice president Kamala Harris, who he said could not avoid being seen as a representative of the “status quo” by Americans who were hurting in the Biden economy.
WELKER: I do want to ask you about the Democratic Party. There’s a new book out by Chris Whipple who reports that in the days before President Biden’s devastating debate performance with President Trump, his first chief of staff, Ron Klain, returned to help him prep.
Klain reports that he was surprised by the fact that he thought that President Biden was struggling to focus. He said he seemed confused about President Trump’s policies, and even fell asleep by the pool after cutting one debate prep session short. Do you think that former President Biden’s advisors misled the American people about his capacities?
SCHIFF: You know, it’s hard for me to gauge what the closest advisors to the president were seeing at the time. I can only speak to the interactions that I had with him, which were, you know, in the months leading up to his getting out of the race, largely ceremonial occasions.
But, you know, I will say this. He made the decision to get out of the race. I think that was the right decision. The vice president, as the vice president, I think ran a great campaign but could not run away from being a representative of the status quo.
And the fact is that people are hurting and had been hurting for a long time. This is a frankly decades in the making problem where people are working harder than ever and still can’t get by.
Watch the clip above via NBC News.
