Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore conceded that President Trump’s performance was “crappy” during the debate he hijacked against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden earlier this month.
HuffPost first reported on the comments late Monday.
While speaking to a crowd on Oct. 2 for the “Election Protection Summit” by the Trump-supporting FreedomWorks nonprofit organization, Moore is seen in a video griping about Trump’s disastrous debate performance, which was obtained by Wisconsin watchdog group Documented.
“It was not a great performance by Trump; in fact, I thought it was a pretty crappy performance,” Moore said, before going on to recall that the then-Republican presidential candidate’s first debate against former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election was “awful” as well.
“Oh my God, he was so bad in that debate, just awful,” Moore said of Trump’s first debate against Clinton in 2016, and told the audience that his “buddy,” fellow White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, told him at the time: “Steve, looks like you and Larry aren’t going to the White House any time soon.”
However, Moore went back to praising Trump for having “rallied” and later “clobbered” Clinton in following debates, before expressing confidence and that “that’s what’s going to happen” when Trump spars with Biden again.
“God willing,” Moore said.
In a statement shared with TPM on Tuesday, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh did not directly address Moore’s remarks, but said that the President “executed his game plan and destroyed” Biden.
“In fact, Biden finished third in the debate, behind President Trump and moderator Chris Wallace,” Murtaugh wrote.
The White House declined TPM’s request for comment.
