CNN panelists reporting from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago mocked claims from party organizers that President Biden’s speech was an hour behind schedule due to the “raucous applause” that was generated by the speakers who preceded him throughout the evening.
Anderson Cooper, who moderated the CNN panel as part of the network’s coverage of the convention, wasn’t buying the official explanation.
“By the way, I see a report that convention officials are saying that the reason it went long is because of all the ‘raucous applause,’” said Cooper, who laughed along with the other commentators.
Cooper then added: “Uh, that’s the sort of thing, you build into this — we have had conventions before, you sort of know…”
Another CNN panelist, Audie Cornish, agreed: “That’s amazing spin.”
The comments by Cooper and Cornish were reported by the news site Mediaite.
Biden, whose decision to bow out of the 2024 presidential race last month paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris’ nomination, took the stage around 11:30 p.m. Eastern time.
The original DNC schedule called for him to address the crowd at 10:45 p.m. Eastern time — which is still well past prime time.
Biden was preceded by a roster of speakers that included party luminaries such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who was accused of speaking with a “cringe” and “bizarre” fake accent.
The president spoke for nearly an hour — though observers began to wonder whether Biden, who was forced out of the race by senior party leaders over concerns about his age, was deliberately sidelined by convention organizers who knew that the viewing audience would dwindle as the night dragged on.
About half of Americans live in the Eastern time zone.
Biden was also slotted to speak on the first day of the convention — which is rare for a sitting president, who is typically penciled in for addressing delegates on the final night of the four-day event.
“Because of the raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker, we ultimately skipped elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible so that he could speak directly to the American people,” a convention official said in a statement.
“We are proud of the electric atmosphere in our convention hall and proud that our convention is showcasing the broad and diverse coalition behind the Harris-Walz ticket throughout the week on and off the stage.”
A Biden aide told Axios: “This is awful. He literally set up a campaign and handed it over to them — do they have to cut him out of prime time?”
Biden dropped his bid for a second term after a mounting Democratic mutiny over his dismal debate performance on June 27 against former President Donald Trump, which spurred concerns about Biden’s apparent mental decline.
