During Friday’s press gaggle aboard Air Force One, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about President Biden not feeling well at the first presidential debate.
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NewsTranscript
00:00All right. Thanks. Thanks, everybody.
00:11Can you tell us more about his cold? When did he contract it?
00:14What did it affect his performance last night?
00:18So, OK, step back for a second. So, yes, and I think we shared this with many people yesterday.
00:24The president had a cold. He had a sore throat. That happens. And that's what you heard last
00:31night. And, you know, I'll leave it there. I don't have anything else to add. I think Michael
00:36covered a lot of this just moments ago. But, yes, he had a cold. He had a sore throat. Once he knew
00:42that he had a cold and a sore throat, he tested. He certainly tested for COVID. It was negative.
00:49And then he moved on from there. Why did the White House wait until
00:52the middle of the debate to release that information?
00:54Look, I'll tell you this. Look, he had a strong debate prep week. And he got a cold,
01:01which happens. It happens. It's not unusual. It's not something, you know, I mean,
01:08you don't share every time, you know, the president has a cold. It happened.
01:12And once he had the cold and had a sore throat, again, he tested negative for COVID. And then
01:19we moved on. But just curious about the disclosure of that information.
01:23I mean, Tyler, he got a cold. It happens. In terms of when the sequencing,
01:27like instead of before the debate, in the middle of the debate, how you decide when?
01:30Oh, well, obviously, during the debate, we were asked if the president has a cold. We said,
01:35well, we were asked about his hoarse voice. We shared that he had a cold. We shared that
01:39he tested negative. And then we moved on. That's it. It was from his voice as he was
01:43speaking during the debate, obviously. Were there plans to let the public know
01:47if you weren't received, if you weren't, you know, asked about it?
01:52It happens. He had a cold.
01:56Right. But during the debate, that was the blame for why he wasn't doing well.
02:00He had a hoarse voice. So people asked why he had a hoarse voice, because he had a cold.
02:04And we also shared, we went a step, we took a step further and shared that he tested
02:09for COVID. It was negative. I mean, he had a cold. That's what it was.
02:14How is he feeling? Did you talk to him last night?
02:18I'm not going to disclose my private conversations with the president.
02:22Obviously, I speak to him often. You saw him today. You saw him. And I'm going to be super
02:27mindful. Obviously, it was a campaign event today, but you saw him. He spoke directly to
02:34the American people. You saw the crowd. You saw what he laid out. He laid out his vision
02:39for the future, what he's done in the past three and a half years. And that's what I'll stick to.
02:43The other part, you could actually, obviously, you could see for yourself.
02:47But the president is a fighter. He's going to continue to fight for the American people,
02:50as he's done the last three and a half years. That doesn't end. That doesn't stop.
02:55And that's what you'll continue to hear from this president, as you saw today.