Biden told a gathering of Democratic governors that people needed to get more sleep and work fewer hours, including by scaling back events that take place after 8 p.m., according to two people who attended the meeting and several others who were briefed on the president’s comments.
Wednesday’s comments were an apparent admission of fatigue from the 81-year-old president during a meeting aimed at reassuring more than two dozen of his most important allies that he is still up to the job and capable of running a strong campaign against former President Donald J. Trump.
Biden’s comments about needing more rest came shortly after The New York Times reported that current and former administration officials had noticed the president’s blunders had become more frequent and more noticeable over the past few months.
But Biden told state governors attending the White House, some of whom joined online, that he intended to continue campaigning.
Biden said he had traveled abroad frequently in the weeks leading up to the debate, a claim the White House and his allies have cited in recent days as a reason for Biden’s sluggish performance during the debate. Biden’s campaign initially blamed a cold, making the remarks midway through the debate amid a flurry of social media posts questioning why Biden was struggling.
Biden told staffers they needed to get more sleep, according to people familiar with the meeting. Biden repeatedly mentioned working too hard and not listening to his team’s input about his schedule, and said he needed to cut back on his hours and avoid events scheduled after 8 p.m., according to one of the people familiar with the meeting.
When Hawaii Governor Josh Green, who is also a physician, asked about Biden’s health, Biden said he was in good health. “It’s my brain,” he added, according to three people familiar with the matter. Some took the remark as a joke, including New York Governor Kathy Hokul, according to a person close to her. But at least one governor didn’t get it and was confused, the person said.
Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager who attended the meeting, said in a statement that Biden said “all joking aside,” a recollection confirmed by another person briefed on the meeting, adding that O’Malley Dillon was “clearly joking.”
Commenting on the president’s comments about sleeping more and working less overtime, Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said, “President Bush went to bed at 9 o’clock. President Obama cooked dinner at 6:30. Normal presidents have a balance, and Joe Biden does too. He’s not as strict as Donald Trump, who spends half his day ranting on Truth Social about his plans to cause an economic recession and the other half playing golf.”
Biden spent a week preparing for the debate with advisers at Camp David after two overseas trips in the weeks leading up to the debate. A person close to Biden said his comments about sleep and work hours reflected the fact that he was busy running the campaign and official duties during a training period that followed those trips.
Several governors who attended the meeting expressed disappointment after the meeting that there was little discussion about whether Biden should continue to campaign for president in 2024, an issue that was discussed at length during the governors’ conference call on Monday.
Although some governors had privately expressed misgivings about Biden continuing to campaign, none of the governors who had been mentioned as possible successors to Biden directly suggested he should drop out of the campaign, according to people briefed on the meeting.
Early in the meeting, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, an ardent Biden supporter, asked about the president’s plans for the upcoming campaign, according to two people briefed on the meeting.
Others in the call also offered harsh comments. Colorado Governor Jared Polis, who was participating virtually, told the president near the end of the call that there was growing public demand from various quarters for Biden to stop campaigning, according to two people briefed on the call.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also expressed concern, with Mills saying people don’t believe Biden can make the race and Lujan Grisham saying she worries the president could lose her state, according to two people briefed on the matter.
Some state governors have been vocal in taking their positions. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey did not speak during Biden’s call on Wednesday, but when she discussed the situation with other governors on Monday, she said she told White House chief of staff Jeff Zients that the president’s political standing was “irreparable” following his abysmal performance in the debate, according to two people who were on the call.
Biden acknowledged to two allies after the debate that he might not be able to hang on to a second term if he couldn’t prove himself to voters. In a call Wednesday before the governors’ meeting, Biden tried to reassure worried campaign aides that he was campaigning to stay.
But Biden’s opening remarks to governors that he would continue in his job left some attendees feeling that further discussion of the current situation was chilling.
“It was a terrible night,” Biden said in an interview with a Milwaukee radio station published Wednesday. In a pre-recorded interview with radio host Earl Ingram, Biden added, “The fact is I screwed up. I made mistakes.”
Biden also visited a doctor in the days after the debate for a cold but told governors he was OK, people familiar with the matter said. The doctor’s appointment, which the White House said took place on Monday, was brief and not a full physical, Politico previously reported.
White House press secretary Andrew Bates confirmed that Biden had visited a White House physician to evaluate him for a cold, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the opposite on Friday, telling reporters that Biden has not had any medical check-ups since February.
