Former Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Sunday that former Vice President Joe Biden has actually benefited from his own poor debate performances.
During a panel discussion on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Santorum noted that Biden had set such low expectations with his performances in the earlier debates that he was able to make a good impression, at least by comparison, in the last Democratic primary debate of 2019. (RELATED: CNN Guest: ‘When A Woman Gets Pregnant, That Is Not A Human Being’)
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Guest host Dana Bash began the segment by playing Biden’s reaction to his debate performance last Thursday.
“I’m the guy with the target on my back from every single person on the stage and I was able to be able to just state my position clearly and move on. My whole purpose in the beginning is to make the case not why other people aren’t qualified but why I’m the most qualified person to defeat Donald Trump,” Biden explained.
Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum added, “I thought Biden did a solid job. The truth is that he actually didn’t have to do a great deal to walk away from that debate having kind of the glowing reviews that he has. Why? Because he is the front-runner without a doubt. There is a little bit of an expectations thing and for me what a lot of folks on the democratic side want is they want to choose a winner. Someone who could go up against Donald Trump and win. And some of what has created the ability for rise for some of the other candidates is doubts about whether Joe could be consistently steady. He showed steadiness and direct and short and made his points.”
“Joe has benefited from the fact that the prior performances were not very good at all and so this by comparison looks good,” Santorum cut in. “And that is the perception. He was so much crisper and —”
“And perception is everything,” Bash interjected.
“And perception is everything,” Santorum agreed. “And he did a good job. I think — if people want to step back and see if he could take on Donald Trump — I think they’re overestimating …” he trailed off.