White House Explains Failure of ‘We Finally Defeated Medicare’ Debate

(The Hill) – The White House explained Wednesday what President Biden meant when he mistakenly declared “We finally beat Medicare” during last week’s presidential debate.

“He meant that he beat big pharma,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at a news briefing when asked what she thought of the president’s remarks. “I mean, that’s what he meant.”

The president’s statement on Medicare Thursday night left some perplexed, and the president faced an overall negative assessment of his performance in the debate against former President Trump. The debate, in which Biden spoke in a hoarse voice and stumbled over his words, sent Democrats into panic and raised questions about whether the president should remain at the helm of his party.

The White House insisted on Wednesday that Biden was not leaving the presidential race, and Biden said in a fundraising email the same day that no one was “pushing” him “out the door.”

“I am the Democratic Party’s nominee,” the fundraising email reads. “No one is pushing me to leave. I am not leaving, I am in this race until the end, and WE are going to win this election. If that’s all you need to hear, donate a few dollars to help us (Vice President Harris) and I defeat Donald Trump in November.”

Some Democrats have even called on Biden to drop out of the race or be replaced as the Democratic nominee. On Tuesday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) became the first House Democrat to publicly urge Biden to drop out of the presidential race following the debate.

“President Biden has continued to lag far behind Democratic senators in key swing states and is trailing Donald Trump in most polls. I had hoped the debate would provide momentum to change that. It did not,” Doggett said in a statement. “Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”