Former Chief of Staff Ronald Klain: Biden’s June 2024 debate was “very weak,” but remained decision-maker

Ronald Klain, who served as White House chief of staff until Feb. 7, 2023, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that President Joe Biden’s June 27, 2024, debate performance against Donald Trump was “a very bad debate” and that debate prep at Camp David the week before “did not go well.” Klain, who advised the president’s 2024 campaign, said he had urged an early debate to address voters’ concerns about Biden’s age but that the debate did not have the intended effect.

Klain said he helped prepare a campaign memorandum dated April 15, 2024, that recommended an early debate to rebut age-related doubts, and he warned the committee he had been “wrong” about the debate’s outcome. He described two kinds of debate preparation at Camp David: informal question-and-answer exchanges around the dining table and two formal mock debates in the theater room with Bob Bauer playing the role of former president Trump. "Practice did not go well," Klain said, adding that he and others observed the president had not reviewed the cards prepared for timed debate answers: "when I looked at the cards, there were no slashes," a notation Klain said Biden routinely used to manage his lifelong stutter.

Klain described medical treatment for an upper respiratory illness at Camp David and said he had "no…