President Joe Biden has suggested to Democratic governors that they may limit nighttime events after 8 p.m. to allow them more time to sleep, according to two sources familiar with the exchanges.
Biden met with state governors on Wednesday night, seeking to ease allies’ concerns after his disastrous debate defeat left Democrats worried about his ability to do his job and campaign for reelection.
A source told NBC News that he was in good health but joked that “it’s a brain problem.”
“He was clearly joking, but then he said, ‘No kidding,'” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said Thursday.
The comments, first reported by The New York Times, were part of a series of leaks about the debate’s contents. None of the governors, White House or campaign staff were in attendance. Trump also said he had sought medical attention after the debate, contradicting previous claims from the White House.
A third source familiar with the meeting said several people in the meeting were surprised when Biden began the discussion by saying he was absolutely committed to campaigning, rather than seeking governors’ opinions about what he was seeing and hearing in their states.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was on the call and serves as a surrogate for Biden, who is seen as a future Democratic presidential nominee, said Biden was not “literal” in his 8 p.m. remarks.
“It was just a rhetorical framing of him getting better and resting because he’d been exhausted the last 10 days. I think what he was reflecting on was focusing on becoming a more energetic version of himself,” Newsom said.
A fifth person with knowledge of the meeting downplayed Biden’s comments about needing more sleep, adding that Biden generally acknowledges he needs to get better at timing his rest.
But Democratic lawmakers expressed concern about Biden’s 8 p.m. remarks. “I don’t think it’s going to do any good. It’s not going to help,” one lawmaker said. “What if there’s a crisis in the middle of the night?”
The campaign defended the comments, saying the president needs a balanced schedule.
“President Bush went to bed at 9 o’clock. President Obama cooked dinner at 6:30. Normal presidents strike a balance, and so does Joe Biden,” campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement. “He’s not going to be as strict as Donald Trump, who spends half his day ranting on Truth Social about his plans to bring about an economic recession and the other half playing golf.”
A week after the debate, Democrats have expressed dissatisfaction with Biden’s performance there and how he and White House staff handled allies’ reactions to it.
Biden is expected to do some damage control in an interview with ABC News on Friday morning, which is scheduled to air in the evening, but some are questioning whether that will be enough.
“One interview is not going to make this better,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said on MSNBC on Thursday. “He has one thing to do, and that’s to get up and get out there and prove to people that he can, will and has the stamina to do the job.”
Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., in an interview with a local CBS affiliate, questioned whether Biden could win the November election, saying he wasn’t sure he could support him at this point.
“I think the campaign has been very arrogant in how they’ve responded,” he said, arguing that they need to turn around numbers in battleground states. “If they don’t have a plan, I think we have to go in a different direction.”
But Peters and Dingell stopped short of calling on Biden to step down as a candidate — one of only two House Democrats to publicly say Biden should drop out of the race.
Some allies remain staunchly supportive.
Governor Newsom kicked off his campaign in Michigan on Thursday, touting the Governors’ Conference.
“I say that with absolute certainty,” he said of the meeting. “That was Joe Biden two weeks ago. That was Joe Biden two years ago. That is the Joe Biden that I look forward to re-electing as president of the United States.”
Fixes (2:13 p.m., July 4, 2024): Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story misstated Jen O’Malley Dillon’s role with the Biden campaign. She is the Biden campaign’s campaign chair, not its campaign manager.
