Bob Woodward says Biden’s debate was a huge deal
Bob Woodward, a renowned two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and associate editor of the Washington Post, is calling on reporters to urgently seek an explanation for President Joe Biden’s catastrophic performance during Thursday’s debate against Donald Trump.
Woodward, who expressed his shock on MSNBC’s “The Beat”, emphasized the need for an in-depth investigation into what went wrong, stating, “Biden’s performance was so dreadful that as a reporter, I believe there must be a valid explanation behind it. What really happened? He had prepared extensively for this moment, knowing its significance, and yet it turned out to be this disastrous.”
“The key lies in thorough reporting – in actively seeking an explanation,” added Woodward.
Known for exposing the Watergate scandal involving President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, Woodward stressed the importance of not delaying the revelation of the truth till a future book release but rather making it public immediately. He compared Biden’s performance to a “political hydrogen bomb”, underlining the magnitude of the impact.
Expressing his disbelief at Biden’s poor showing, Woodward reiterated his call for swift investigative reporting to uncover the underlying reasons for the debacle.
Joining a growing chorus of political analysts questioning Biden’s chances in the upcoming election, Woodward mentioned the New York Times’ editorial board, which published an op-ed calling for Biden to step down during his interview on Friday.
When informed of this development on-air, Woodward commented, “Well, it was bound to happen.”
Observing that Biden must have dedicated several days to prepare for the debate, Woodward refrained from speculating on possible explanations for the president’s performance. Instead, he encouraged journalists to focus on answering the crucial question of what led to such a disappointing outcome.
Comparing it to investigating a building explosion in a city, Woodward emphasized the need to unravel the sequence of events that contributed to the debacle, stating, “If a building blows up in downtown of some city, the story will be what happened, and then the story will be how did this happen, why did it happen?”
Expressing his deep curiosity about the events that transpired during the debate, Woodward stressed the significance of thorough investigative journalism in unraveling the truth behind Biden’s underwhelming performance.
Woodward concluded his remarks by cautioning Democrats against downplaying the gravity of Thursday’s debate and the stark realities it revealed. He highlighted a CNN flash poll which indicated that 67% of viewers believed Trump outperformed Biden, emphasizing that it was not just a bad night but, in fact, an incoherent one.
