Tucker Carlson admits it was a mistake to focus on Biden's mental state after debate performance

On Tucker Carlson Tonight Wednesday, Carlson began the show ripping the chaotic presidential debate the night before, as many of his colleagues in the media had done immediately following the debate.

“Holy smokes, was that intense. So what did we learn last night at the debate? Well, America deserves better. That’s the first and most obvious thing we learned,” Carlson said. “We want the nation our grandchildren inherit to be as stable and as happy as the country we grew up in, but last night’s debate gave us little confidence that will happen. It was a painful, highly depressing 90 minutes. At times things seemed out of control.”

While many in the media focused on President Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists when asked to do so by debate moderator Chris Wallace, Carlson had a different takeaway. For months, Carlson and others in the media, along with Trump, have tried to paint Joe Biden as losing his mind, as senile. Carlson admitted that they were wrong to do so as Biden answered questions more precisely than he’d expected.

“The main thing we learned last night is that it was a mistake to spend so much time focusing on Joe Biden’s mental decline,” Carlson said. “On stage last night, Biden did not seem senile. If you tuned in expecting him to forget his own name, and honestly we did expect that, you may have been surprised by how precise some of his answers were.”

Trump and Biden repeatedly traded barbs throughout the debate, many times while trying to talk over the other person. Trump took a shot at Biden’s intelligence while Biden called Trump racist. But Carlson doesn’t believe personal attacks like this will have any bearing on the outcome of the election.

“Trump isn’t gonna win this race by calling Joe Biden senile. Nor, by the way, is Joe Biden gonna win this race by calling Donald Trump a racist, as he repeatedly did last night,” Carlson said. “That slander didn’t work four years ago, it will not work now.”

Tucker Carlson Tonight airs weeknights at 8 p.m. on Fox News Channel.

Watch a CNN panel’s shock following the ‘sh** show’ presidential debate:

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