Jake Tapper

And whether people like it or not, that's part of the job is explaining to people why they should support you and why they should get behind you.

And whether people like it or not, that's part of the job is explaining to people why they should support you and why they should get behind you.

And whether people like it or not, that's part of the job is explaining to people why they should support you and why they should get behind you.

It didn't throw me off. I did wonder if he was going to make it through all 90 minutes. My general philosophy with debates is you work for weeks on the questions with a huge team. You go through practice debates. You go through run-throughs. And then you just basically have to stick to the script. That's how I look at it. So I wasn't going to do anything. And also, it wasn't my job to.

It didn't throw me off. I did wonder if he was going to make it through all 90 minutes. My general philosophy with debates is you work for weeks on the questions with a huge team. You go through practice debates. You go through run-throughs. And then you just basically have to stick to the script. That's how I look at it. So I wasn't going to do anything. And also, it wasn't my job to.

It didn't throw me off. I did wonder if he was going to make it through all 90 minutes. My general philosophy with debates is you work for weeks on the questions with a huge team. You go through practice debates. You go through run-throughs. And then you just basically have to stick to the script. That's how I look at it. So I wasn't going to do anything. And also, it wasn't my job to.

I wasn't about to call the fight. One of the things that I did do, Dan and I had iPads so that we could communicate with the control room during the debate. We could write on it and people would see it in the control room. And during that first really rambling answer, really disturbing, I wrote, holy smokes, on the iPad.

I wasn't about to call the fight. One of the things that I did do, Dan and I had iPads so that we could communicate with the control room during the debate. We could write on it and people would see it in the control room. And during that first really rambling answer, really disturbing, I wrote, holy smokes, on the iPad.

I wasn't about to call the fight. One of the things that I did do, Dan and I had iPads so that we could communicate with the control room during the debate. We could write on it and people would see it in the control room. And during that first really rambling answer, really disturbing, I wrote, holy smokes, on the iPad.

And I'm usually a little bit earthier with my language, but I didn't know who was back there. And Dan wrote me a piece of paper saying he just lost the election because when he said, we finally beat Medicare... Just the height of inarticulation.

And I'm usually a little bit earthier with my language, but I didn't know who was back there. And Dan wrote me a piece of paper saying he just lost the election because when he said, we finally beat Medicare... Just the height of inarticulation.

And I'm usually a little bit earthier with my language, but I didn't know who was back there. And Dan wrote me a piece of paper saying he just lost the election because when he said, we finally beat Medicare... Just the height of inarticulation.

And, you know, one top aide to Biden said to me, if the presidency is about two things, making decisions and communicating them, he always made good decisions, but he could never communicate them. And it got worse and worse. And I think the Biden team would dismiss the communication stuff as performative, like as if performing is a bad thing.

And, you know, one top aide to Biden said to me, if the presidency is about two things, making decisions and communicating them, he always made good decisions, but he could never communicate them. And it got worse and worse. And I think the Biden team would dismiss the communication stuff as performative, like as if performing is a bad thing.

And, you know, one top aide to Biden said to me, if the presidency is about two things, making decisions and communicating them, he always made good decisions, but he could never communicate them. And it got worse and worse. And I think the Biden team would dismiss the communication stuff as performative, like as if performing is a bad thing.

When, in fact, it's a huge and vital part of the American presidency, you know, certainly in the television age dating back to JFK.

When, in fact, it's a huge and vital part of the American presidency, you know, certainly in the television age dating back to JFK.

When, in fact, it's a huge and vital part of the American presidency, you know, certainly in the television age dating back to JFK.

Democrats were shocked. They were just absolutely stunned. And I think there were really two camps. There was the Biden camp, which was, OK, how do we get out of this? How do we crawl back? Because Joe Biden, as I said earlier, as a compliment, you know, he cannot be defeated. That's his great attitude. He's not going to be defeated by brain aneurysms, by this tragedy, by that tragedy.

Democrats were shocked. They were just absolutely stunned. And I think there were really two camps. There was the Biden camp, which was, OK, how do we get out of this? How do we crawl back? Because Joe Biden, as I said earlier, as a compliment, you know, he cannot be defeated. That's his great attitude. He's not going to be defeated by brain aneurysms, by this tragedy, by that tragedy.