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A voter who criticized President Biden is speaking out about his encounter with a Biden campaign staffer after he said she tried to shut down his interview with a New York Times reporter.
Stephen Stubbs, a First Amendment attorney from Henderson, Nevada, told Fox News Digital in an interview that he was invited to attend a June 28 campaign event at the East Las Vegas Community Center featuring Vice President Kamala Harris.
Stubbs said he initially wanted to attend the Harris event to hear how the administration planned to deal with inflation, but in the wake of Biden’s performance at the CNN Presidential Debate, he wanted to hear what she would say regarding questions about Biden’s mental acuity.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally on June 28, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Everybody was talking about the debate the night before. Everybody was. And everybody was concerned. There were a few people that were vocal and saying, we have to move forward with what we have, so let’s not talk negatively. But 90% of the people were critical of Joe Biden and [were] very, very worried,” he recalled.
Staffers wearing Biden-Harris shirts at the event went around “strongly hinting” that people shouldn’t say anything negative about the president at a Biden event, according to Stubbs.
He said he was sitting outside eating his tacos and ice cream and happened to sit next to the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Nevada, who was approached a few minutes later by New York Times politics fellow Simon Levien for an interview.
A Biden/Harris campaign sign is seen during a press conference regarding the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 29, 2024.
Stubbs said he began talking to Levien, who then asked him what he thought about the debate the night before.
A Biden staffer who was following Levien around took out her phone and began recording their conversation. “That in itself was kind of intimidating,” Stubbs told Fox News Digital.
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He said he began questioning why Biden couldn’t articulate for 90 minutes at the debate what he’s doing daily as president.
President Joe Biden (R) and Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump participate in the CNN Presidential Debate at the CNN Studios on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“I’m concerned about who’s running the country right now. And I said, from what I saw last night, Biden should step down and Kamala Harris [who] was elected the vice president, that is her job, she should fulfill the rest of his term. And when I said that, the staffer said, I’m going to stop this right now. This is a Biden event. I’m sorry, but I’m going to stop this. She tried to stop it,” Stubbs explained.
“Now, to the New York Times’ credit, they turned to her and said, no. I’m continuing with this interview, but the whole time she was giving me, like, daggers. Just daggers. Like, how dare you talk negatively about Biden to the New York Times.”
Levien identified the staffer as Clio Calvo-Platero, deputy communications director for the Biden campaign in Nevada.
Calvo-Platero twice tried to end interviews with voters who were critical of Biden: once with Democratic voter Amy Nelson and the other with Stubbs, according to a vice presidential pool report from Levien.
US President Joe Biden, left, speaks during a campaign event at Pearson Community Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. (Ian Maule/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Biden campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment about the incident.
Stubbs, who describes himself as a constitutionalist, said he’s a registered Democrat who voted third-party in the 2020 election because he wasn’t happy with either Trump or Biden.
He said his interaction with Calvo-Platero “shocked” his conscience. “I didn’t appreciate it,” he added. “She is the one that ordered us; it wasn’t a request; she ordered us to stop talking. That was chilling.”
Stubbs told Fox News Digital he’s an undecided voter heading into November. He has issues with both Trump and Biden and likens the choice to “chlamydia” or “gonorrhea.”
“Neither one is a good choice,” he said. “I’m begging someone to give me a reason not to vote for Trump.”
Donald Trump (L) and Joe Biden (R) during the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, 2020. Brendan Smialowski and Jim WatsonAFP via Getty Images (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKIJIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The Nevada native added that he likes Biden’s Supreme Court pick, Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson, the administration’s environmental policies and its support for unions and unionized workers.
As for Trump, Stubbs said he takes issue with his “pro-police militarization and selling weapons of war to police departments.”
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Inflation is the most important issue for him heading into November because it’s hurting his family and adult children “deeply.”
Stubbs said his final concern about Biden is that he’s being kept in a “bubble.”
“He’s not hearing feedback from real Americans, right? Look, I am not convinced that Biden has the mental acuity to do the job today. I think the responsible thing for him to do is to say, for the good of the country, I’m going to put myself aside and any ego I might have, step down and Mrs. Harris is going to finish out my term. It’s not very long, right? And you know what? Give her a shot,” he told Fox News Digital.
“My problem is, is that if Biden stays in the race, we don’t really know who Trump is running against. It’s a person behind a curtain. We don’t know who’s making the analysis and the decisions because Biden doesn’t have the mental acuity,” Stubbs continued.
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“The curtain has to be open. We have to know what is going on, who is running the country. That’s the first thing I asked that reporter. Who is running the country? We need to know.”
The White House has repeatedly said Biden had a bad night during the debate, citing a cold and jetlag and insists that he is the one making decisions. Biden himself insists he is up for his duties as president and is the candidate best suited to defeat former President Trump in November.