Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., was pressed Tuesday on whether he regretted criticizing fellow Democrats over their reservations about former President Joe Biden following his disastrous 2024 debate performance.
CNN anchor John Berman cited authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes’ reporting in their book about the presidential campaign that Coons knew Biden’s debate performance was bad, but still chose to accuse his Democratic colleagues of “bed-wetting” as they expressed concerns over the former president.
“Now, there are some people who’ve written on this, including Jim Geraghty in the National Review, who say, if you felt that way, maybe you shouldn’t have criticized Democrats for their reservations about President Biden at the time. Do you wish you had done things differently at this point?” Berman asked Coons.
“Obviously, if I had any idea that President Biden was going to perform as poorly as he did at that debate, I would have been advising him differently and advocating differently. That debate performance was the first time I saw anything like that out of President Biden,” Coons responded.
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Sen. Chris Coons spoke to CNN on Tuesday about whether he would have dealt with the fallout of former President Biden’s disastrous debate differently. (Screenshot/CNN)
“He had been and was a strong and capable president, and he still had strong public performances, interviews, and just the next day went to North Carolina and spoke forcefully at a rally, but I was shocked. I was genuinely surprised by that performance that evening and was wrestling with what it meant for our path forward,” he told Berman.
Allen and Parnes wrote that Coons received several texts from his colleagues that pointed out the performance by Biden was “terrible,” and that he was expected to answer for the president.
An excerpt from the book read: “Now, jet-lagged, he found himself thrust into the unusual position of protecting Biden from Democratic senators. He knew, as Biden’s guy in their chamber, he could give no ground. If he did, it would only feed the frenzy. He shot back texts accusing his colleagues of bed-wetting, telling them to put their big-kid pants on and asking what was wrong with them that they would so easily go faithless on the president.”
Coons, according to the book, acknowledged that he saw what his colleagues saw, and knew the president “s— the bed” in the debate.
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Delaware Sen. Chris Coons speaks during the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
The Democratic senator regularly defended Biden when pressed on concerns about the president’s age and fitness throughout the campaign.
In an interview on Fox News’ “The Story” prior to the debate in early June, Coons dismissed reporting from The Wall Street Journal that cited lawmakers who felt the former president was showing signs of decline.
“I think they got this wrong because they didn’t use quotes from those of us who serve with President Biden, who know him, who have had the opportunity up-close-and-personal in meetings in the White House or in events publicly or privately, to give affirmation that he is sharp, he is engaged, and he is commanding,” he said.
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After the debate – as Democrats and several media voices, including The New York Times editorial board, called on Biden to drop out of the race – Coons spoke to CNN on July 1 and demanded anyone who believed calling on Biden to drop out was the best way forward needed to “refocus.”