Trump’s economic advisor was caught on camera slamming the president’s ‘crappy’ debate performance

© Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Stephen Moore. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

• A senior economic advisor to Trump was filmed slamming his debate performance.
• Stephen Moore told a pro-Trump event that his performance against Biden was “crappy,” in footage published by Huff Post.
• Moore spoke at an event in Washington organised by pro-Trump group FreedomWorks.
• Trump has previously praised Moore as “a great pro-growth economist and a truly fine person”
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

An economic advisor to Donald Trump was filmed describing his performance in the recent debate against Joe Biden as “crappy” in newly-released footage from earlier this month.

Stephen Moore, who Trump has previously described as “a great pro-growth economist and a truly fine person”, made the remarks earlier this month at the Election Protection Summit in Washington organised by pro-Trump group FreedomWorks.

“It was not a great performance by Trump; in fact, I thought it was a pretty crappy performance,” he told the crowd, in footage published by Huff Post and acquired by Wisconsin-based watchdog Documented.

Moore also said that Trump had put in an “awful” performance in his first debate with Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton in the run-up to the 2016 election.

“Oh my God, he was so bad in that debate, just awful,” Moore reportedly said at the event on October 2.

However, he added that Trump had “rallied” and “clobbered” Clinton in the next debate and that “God willing” that is “what’s going to happen” at the next debate between Trump and Biden before next month’s presidential election.

Moore added that he thought the election would be a “really tight.”

The first televised debate between Trump and Biden took place at the end of last month and received mostly negative reviews.

The 90-minute debate was characterised by repeated interruptions from Trump and bad-natured exchanges between the two candidates. Speaking shortly after the debate, Biden said Trump’s performance, in which he spoke over Biden several times and made a number of false statements, was a “national embarrassment.” At one point during the debate, Biden told to Trump to “shut up” and later called him a “clown.” 

In the same debate, Trump refused to condemn white supremacy. When asked by moderator Chris Wallace to condemn The Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, Trump told the group to “stand back” and “stand by” amid nationwide protests against racism.

The president has withdrawn from a virtual debate that was due to take place on Thursday, saying he did not want to be muted while speaking. 

“I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That’s not what debating is all about,” he told Fox News.

“You sit behind a computer and do a debate — it’s ridiculous, and then they cut you off whenever they want.”

That means the next and final debate between the pair will take place on Thursday, October 22, less than two weeks away from the election on Tuesday, November 3.