White House fends off tough questions about Biden’s mental fitness after debate

Washington
CNN
 — 

The White House on Tuesday fended off tough questions about President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, acknowledging his poor performance in last week’s debate while maintaining the president is still able to hold and run for office.

“First of all, I want to say, we understand the concerns. We get it. The president did not have a great night,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

She later added: “We’re not taking away from what the American people saw.”

Tuesday’s press briefing, the first since the debate, came as Biden has faced one of the toughest stretches of his presidency and with his reelection campaign reeling. Campaign officials are scrambling to calm donors who were shocked by Biden’s halting, hoarse performance. The White House announced Tuesday that Biden is expected to meet with Democratic governors and congressional leaders Wednesday after some demanded a meeting with the president. Some officials have been turned off by the Biden campaign’s dismissiveness over their concerns about the president’s health. And earlier Tuesday, a Democratic member of Congress became the first to ask Biden to drop out of the race.

The White House preempted the first questions from reporters by announcing Biden will appear in two high-profile events over the next week: an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that will air in part on Friday and a solo news conference during the NATO summit in Washington next week.

Such unscripted events are rare for the president, who by CNN’s count lags behind his most recent predecessors in formal press conferences. Thursday’s debate was the biggest audience Biden has had since his last round of debates against former President Donald Trump four years ago – exacerbating the shock some felt at his performance.

Asked whether Biden regularly presents himself the way he did at the debate, Jean-Pierre evoked a speech that Biden gave in North Carolina the day after the debate: “He understands that he’s not a young man,” she said, adding that his focus is going to be on continuing “to deliver for the American people on the issues that they care about.”

In a deeply reported piece published Tuesday, The New York Times reported that people in the room with Biden have become increasingly concerned with how he has recently presented himself, describing the president as seeming confused at some points during two high-profile trips to Europe in recent weeks.

Biden has increasingly indicated he is aware of the problems with his debate performance as the fallout within his own party has mounted. The president said during a fundraiser Tuesday that he “almost fell asleep onstage” during…