Late-night host Stephen Colbert and former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre got into a tense exchange on The Late Show on Monday night over Joe Biden’s health and claims that the Democratic Party turned its back on him, reports Fox News. Jean-Pierre appeared on the show to promote her new book Independent, where she spoke about feeling let down by how Democrats handled Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race. But Colbert pressed her about the former president’s visible decline in the months leading up to the June 2024 debate. “It was very personal for those of us who watched it too, because it was a shock to our system to see that,” Colbert said. “Because — I mean, you’re talking to a guy who helped raise $25 million for Joe Biden in March of that same year. And three months later, I saw a guy who I had not seen backstage at the benefit that I did. It seemed like a dramatically different person. And at 81 years old, that’s not entirely unexpected. You can imagine why people got so worried.” Jean-Pierre defended Biden, saying she saw him daily and believed he was fully capable of leading. She added that she grew disillusioned with the party’s actions after the debate, saying she could no longer “stomach” being part of it. But Colbert didn’t let up. “I’m not questioning his heart or his policies, but it takes more than that to be the president of the United States,” he said. “And in a moment of great pressure on stage, we saw someone shock us and worry us. And nothing could assuage that worry. So I don’t think it was necessarily a betrayal of Joe Biden as other people saying, ‘We don’t think we were shown the Joe Biden that you saw.’” Jean-Pierre admitted that Biden’s debate performance was “disappointing.” Colbert replied, “Disappointment is such a light term. It was harrowing.” Earlier in the day, Jean-Pierre appeared on CBS Mornings, where hosts Tony Dokoupil and Gayle King also challenged her defence of Biden. Dokoupil asked why she was “angry at the people who tried to push him out,” while King said she found it “hard to understand” how Jean-Pierre, who was on the plane to the debate, hadn’t noticed signs of decline.
