Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) defended President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance during an interview over the weekend, claiming that Biden has a hard time getting a “word out” because he is a “stutterer.”

Clyburn made the remarks during a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with co-host Dana Bash.

The 83-year-old excused Biden’s “bad performance” by claiming: “I have been a part of debate preparation before, and I know when I see what I call preparation overload. And that’s exactly what was going on the other night.”

“I saw Joe Biden grabbing for words and phrases and even numbers that he was loaded up with,” he claimed.

He said that he believes that Biden should “very clearly he should stay in this race”, even though new polling released on Sunday by CBS News found that only 27% of voters believe that he has the mental fitness to continue serving as president.

“Joe Biden has a history of stuttering. He did that as a child. All of us know how stutterers operate. I went to school with one,” he said. “So, when you have trouble getting out a word, that is what comes from stuttering. But when he expressed opinions, he was on the money with the opinions. He may not have gotten the word out, but the thoughts were great.”

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