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Pritzker Urges Biden to Address Americans After Poor Debate
(Bloomberg) -- Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker urged President Joe Biden to address the nation to explain his strategy and allay concerns after his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump.
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“President Biden needs to communicate more. We haven’t heard a lot from him since the debate, and that’s why the polls look as they do,” Pritzker told CNN on Tuesday. “When you come off a bad debate, you need to remind people why you’re the right guy to elect.”
Pritzker has run reliably-blue Illinois since 2019 and is one of several governors traveling to the White House on Wednesday to meet with Biden in an attempt to shore up support as Democratic anxiety grows that Biden will lose the White House in November. The billionaire was planning to attend virtually but changed his schedule and will now be there alongside California’s Gavin Newsom.
Pritzker has long been spoken of as a potential Democratic presidential candidate, but has increased his profile further within the party by championing Chicago’s bid for the Democratic National Convention in August.
Pritzker told CNN that he hasn’t spoken to Biden since Thursday’s debate, when the 81-year-old stumbled over answers, spoke in a raspy voice and was hammered by Trump over immigration and the economy. News site Puck published a leaked memo from a pollster for a Democratic political action committee that showed Biden’s favorability numbers tumbled after the event in “the largest single-week drop” in nearly three years.
Pritzker made clear his support of the President, who he expects to be the nominee — unless Biden decides himself to drop out — and slammed Trump, who’s 78, as a convicted felon and “congenital liar.” But he also said that the Democratic Party tolerates dissent and a “healthy discussion” is taking place.
“Biden’s been terrific for my state. Remember, he rescued us from well an insurrection and then from an economy that could have cratered, he’s done a lot to revive American manufacturing and in my state,” Pritzker said.
Biden plans to sit down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday and parts of the interview will run that day.
--With assistance from Justin Sink.
(Updates with upcoming ABC interview in last paragraph.)
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