After ardently defending President Joe Biden in the wake of his disastrous performance against Donald Trump on the debate stage, Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer admitted on Wednesday that she only watched “clips” of the June 27 event.

Whitmer, who is also a national co-chair of the Biden campaign, joined late-night host Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night to promote her new book and discuss the Democratic Party’s worries surrounding Biden. The Michigan governor has been floated as a potential replacement candidate for Democrats if Biden were to drop out of the race, but she has repeatedly said she fully supports the president’s re-election bid as some Democrats call for him to step aside.

“Did you watch the debate?” Colbert asked.

“I’ve seen clips of the debate,” Whitmer said.

“You didn’t watch the debate?” Colbert pressed.

Whitmer laughed and replied, “I was actually out on the West Coast with a couple of my colleagues [for] a fundraiser.”

“I forgot, they don’t have television in California,” Colbert quipped.

When Colbert asked Whitmer about her reaction to Biden’s performance, she changed the subject, telling the late-night host, “I like your tie.”

Biden campaign co-chair @GovWhitmer claims she didn’t actually watch Biden’s debate.

She “watched clips” because she was at a fundraiser, and concluded Biden had a “lousy performance”. pic.twitter.com/BPoE71JFmr

— The Midwesterner (@Th_Midwesterner) July 11, 2024

Whitmer finally acknowledged that Biden’s debate performance was “lousy,” but she continued to defend her party’s leader.

“I think that the debate rattled a lot of people, right? It was a lousy performance. I don’t think anyone’s disputing that,” she said. “I spent some time with the president in the White House with a number of my colleagues shortly after the debate, I talked to him this past weekend with all of the other vice chairs of his campaign, co-chairs, and, you know, he’s up for this.”

“He’s up for the job for the next four years, and I am working my tail off on his behalf,” Whitmer added.

In a USA Today interview published on Tuesday, Whitmer said the debate was only “a 90-minute snapshot of someone who has been back and forth to Europe twice in one week,” adding that Biden keeps a “really aggressive calendar.”

Michigan, a vital swing state in the presidential election, is slightly leaning in Trump’s direction, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. Biden took Michigan in 2020 after Trump narrowly won the state over Hillary Clinton in 2016.