Biden had a medical checkup in days following shaky debate performance

The president’s remark during Wednesday’s meeting came after Gov. Josh Green (D-Hawaii), a longtime physician who has worked in emergency rooms, asked about his physical condition. The meeting was an hour-long discussion with the governors in which Biden was seeking to reassure them of his political standing, physical well-being and path to reelection.

Biden responded that he had received a medical checkup since last week’s presidential debate and remains in good health. “It’s just my brain,” he said, according to people briefed on the meeting, a remark that staffers were quick to describe as a jest.

“He was clearly making a joke and then said ‘all kidding aside,’” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign chair.

On Thursday, during a drizzly Independence Day evening that delayed his appearance by about an hour, Biden emerged to speak at a barbecue or active-duty military service members and their families and declared himself “proud to be your commander in chief.”

He read from a teleprompter, but on one occasion during the brief remarks seemed to start a story and then abruptly catch himself. He recounted traveling recently to France, a trip during which he visited a cemetery for American soldiers who died in World War I.

“The former president, he didn’t want to go and be up there,” Biden said. “I probably shouldn’t say it. At any rate. We gotta just remember who in the hell we are — we’re the United States of America!” Biden was referring to Donald Trump, his predecessor and presumptive 2024 rival, who did not visit the cemetery during his own trip to France five years earlier.

Afterward he lingered for a bit to shake hands and someone yelled a message of support from the crowd, telling him, “Keep up the fight. We need you.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he responded.

Biden’s campaign in recent days has tried to regain its footing, and the Wednesday night meeting with governors at the White House intended as a step in shoring up support.

A trio of governors emerged from that meeting to talk to reporters and pledge their support for Biden, while others released statements and social media posts. The meeting was mostly upbeat, according to participants, but there were also signs of the ongoing turbulence in the aftermath of the debate.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) and Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine), for example, told Biden that they were worried that he might lose their states, according to participants in the meeting. In 2020, Biden won in New Mexico by 11 points, and Maine by 9 points. Several of the details about the meeting were first reported by Politico and the New York Times.

Biden’s comment that he needs more sleep marked one of several explanations he has offered for a debate performance in which he stumbled over words and…