President Joe Biden suggested Democratic governors According to two sources familiar with the exchange, she may limit evening events so she can sleep more after 8 p.m.
Biden met with governors on Tuesday, as requested alleviating the anxiety of allies then a disastrous debate performance Democrats worried about the president’s ability to serve and campaign for reelection.
A source told NBC News that even though he is in good health, he joked that “it’s just my brain.”
“He was obviously joking and then he said, ‘Just kidding,'” Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon said Thursday.
He was the first to make the statements The New York Times and is part of a leak stream about the content of the meeting staff did not attend governors, the White House or the campaign. That too he said he went to the doctor after the argumentIt contradicts the White House’s earlier claim.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Biden’s surrogate, who is on call and is seen as a potential future Democratic presidential candidate, said Biden’s comments at 8 p.m. were not “literal.”
“It was more of a rhetorical frame of fit and rest because he’s been on fire from both ends for the last 10 days. I think that was kind of what he was reflecting on, a more stable focus on his energetic self,” Newsom said. .
A fourth person with knowledge of the meeting downplayed the president’s comments about needing more sleep, adding that Biden acknowledged he needs to be better at finding time to rest in general.
The Biden campaign defended the remarks, saying presidents need a balanced schedule.
“President Bush went to bed at 9, and President Obama had dinner at 6:30. “Normal presidents strike a balance, and so does Joe Biden,” campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement. “The same toughness is not nearly the same as Donald Trump, who spends half his day talking about plans to cause a recession on Truth Social and the other half playing golf.”
In the week since the debate, Democrats have expressed disappointment with both Biden’s debate performance and how he and his White House staff handled the reaction from allies.
The president, who spoke to ABC News early Friday morning, is expected to do damage control, but some doubt it will be enough.
“One interview isn’t going to fix it,” he said. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich. “He has one job, and that’s to stand up and go out and prove to people that he can handle the job, he’s going to get the job done and he’s got the stamina.”
Rep. Scott Peters, Democrat of California, was questioned In an interview with a local CBS affiliate in November, Biden said he was unsure about his ability to win and whether he could support the president at this point.
“The campaign, I think, has been very presumptuous in its response,” he said, arguing that they should flip the numbers in swing states. “If they don’t have a plan, then I think we need to move in a different direction.”
But Peters and Dingell stopped short of calling for Biden to step aside as the party’s presidential nominee. Simply two House Democrats publicly said that Biden should drop out of the race.
Still, some allies retain strong support.
Newsom went on the campaign trail in Michigan on Thursday, promoting the governor’s meeting.
“I mean it with absolute certainty,” he said of the meeting: “It was the Joe Biden I remembered two weeks ago. This was the Joe Biden I remember two years ago. This is Joe Biden, who I look forward to re-electing as President of the United States.”