Sleep more and cancel appointments after 8pm. These are the priorities that Joe Biden he indicated, in the meeting with Democratic governors at the White House, to regain his composure after the disastrous televised confrontation with Donald Trump. The president of the United States, as reconstructed by the New York Times and CNN, on Wednesday had a meeting with over 20 governors, some present at the White House and others connected.
At the meeting, the 81-year-old president began by reiterating his intention to continue the campaign ahead of the November elections: “I am not withdrawing.” In essence, his stance eliminated any possibility of debate and would have created discontent among some of the interlocutors.
According to information provided by two people who attended the meeting, Biden referred to the long intercontinental trips – in France and Italy – in the weeks leading up to the debate and linked them to the disappointing performance against Trump. Jet lag, even more than a week after returning home, was also mentioned in the briefing on Wednesday by the White House spokeswoman, who also referred to the cold to explain the bad evening in the CNN studio.
The president explained that he had made it clear to his staff that more hours of sleep were needed: Biden admitted that he had ‘pushed’ too much and had not listened to those who suggested lightening the agenda. Now, things are changing: the president will work less, rest more and avoid events after 8 p.m.
Josh Green, the governor of Hawaii and a physician, asked Biden about his physical condition. The president explained that he had undergone a physical examination after the televised confrontation. The result: good health. “It’s just my brain,” he said, according to people briefed on the meeting. Staffers were quick to debunk the boss’s words. “He was clearly making a joke and then he said ‘jokes aside,'” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager.
Voices against the candidacy are increasing
The picture for Biden remains complicated, ahead of a crucial weekend. Among Democrats, unequivocal public positions are starting to emerge. “The president has done an enormous service to our country, but now is the time to follow in the footsteps of one of our founding fathers, George Washington, and step aside to let new leaders emerge in the challenge to Donald Trump,” says Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat who challenged Biden in the 2020 primaries: he is the third Democratic congressman to officially ask the president to give up his candidacy for the White House. “When your strategy doesn’t work, doubling down is rarely the right decision, President Biden cannot get younger,” Moulton had already declared last Wednesday, asking the party to consider “all possible alternatives.”
“As much as I love Joe Biden, he’s struggling in key states, we needed to have momentum from the debate, but we didn’t. And I think the Biden campaign is very arrogant in their response,” says Representative Scott Peters, elected in California: the Congressman does not explicitly ask for the president to withdraw his candidacy, but he maintains that the possibility should be considered. “We want to know what the Biden campaign is thinking of doing to win the election and change these numbers,” he says, referring to the polls. “If they don’t have a plan, then we need to move in another direction.”
The decisive weekend for the president
Biden will have to prove he is fit for the job he is aiming to keep. A key step is the interview with George Stephanopolous, anchorman of Abc News, on Friday, when the Commander in Chief will be in Wisconsin. On Sunday, instead, he will be in Pennsylvania, another key state for the election.
Billed as an “in-depth” exchange that should help the president dig himself out of the dangerous corner he’s been in since the debate disaster, the interview will actually be recorded for just 15 minutes, The Daily Beast reports.
According to the site, the network’s top brass is concerned that Biden’s team intends to give Stephanopolous just 15 minutes to conduct the interview that is supposed to provide reassurance about the 81-year-old president’s mental capacity. Asked by the site, a White House spokesperson says that “this is false, the interview will be longer.”
Sources at the station, cited by the site, explain that the time available could be about twenty minutes, a relatively short time. The station – concludes the Daily Beast – hopes that Biden, usually known for his talkativeness, will give more time than expected to the interviewer, also on the basis of the fact that it is in the president’s interest to show his ability to be reactive, manage and sustain questions.
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