- Stephen Moore, a senior economic advisor to President Donald
Trump , was filmed slamming Trump's performance at the presidential debate last month. - In footage published by HuffPost, Moore said at an event in Washington organized by a pro-Trump group that Trump's performance against the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, was "crappy."
- Trump has previously praised Moore as "a great pro-growth economist and a truly fine person."
An economic advisor to President Donald Trump was filmed describing Trump's performance in the presidential debate last month against the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, as "crappy."
Stephen Moore, whom Trump has previously described as "a great pro-growth economist and a truly fine person," made the remark on October 2 at the Election Protection Summit in Washington, organized by the pro-Trump group FreedomWorks. HuffPost published the footage, which was obtained by Documented, a watchdog group.
"It was not a great performance by Trump," Moore told the crowd. "In fact, I thought it was a pretty crappy performance by Trump."
Moore also said Trump put in an "awful" performance in his first debate with Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee.
"Oh my God, he was so bad in that debate, just awful," Moore said.
But he said that Trump "rallied" and "clobbered" Clinton in the next debate and that, "God willing," that's "what's going to happen" at the next debate between Trump and Biden.
Moore added that he thought the election would be "really tight," HuffPost reported.
Biden has described Trump's performance at the debate, in which he spoke over Biden several times and made several false statements, as a "national embarrassment." At one point during the debate, Biden told to Trump to "shut up," and Biden later called him a "clown."
When asked by the debate's moderator, Chris Wallace, whether he would condemn white supremacists, Trump mentioned a far-right extremist group, telling its members to "stand back" and "stand by."
The president has withdrawn from a virtual debate that was set to take place on Thursday.
"I'm not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That's not what debating's 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."
The final debate between the pair is scheduled for October 22, less than two weeks before the election on November 3.