Biden tells Dem governors he needs more sleep, no events after 8 p.m.: report
President Biden told a gathering of nearly two dozen Democratic governors at the White House Wednesday night that he needs to get more sleep and work fewer hours — and even avoid events held after 8 p.m. — despite previous reports he can only fully handle the job between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The 81-year-old’s acknowledgment was reported by the New York Times, citing two people who took part in the high-stakes meeting and others who were briefed on the comment.
During the same gathering, the outlet reported, Biden responded to a question from Hawaii Gov. Josh Green about his health by saying while his health was fine, the problem was “just my brain,” an apparent attempt at humor that went unrecognized by at least one state leader in the room.
“President [George W.] Bush went to bed at 9, and President [Barack] Obama made dinner at 6:30,” Biden-Harris campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement to the Times.
“Normal presidents strike a balance, and so does Joe Biden. Hardly the same rigor as Donald Trump who spends half of his day ranting on Truth Social about plans that would cause a recession and other half golfing.”
However, while Bush was 62 when he left office in January 2009, and Obama was 55 when he departed the White House after two terms, Biden — already the oldest president in US history, would be 86 if he manages to complete a second four-year term.
Meanwhile, in a report published Thursday by New York magazine, longtime friends of the first family revealed that Biden no longer remembered their names — while on at least one occasion, first lady Jill Biden “fed” the president a greeting to a Democratic mega-donor at a White House reception.
“It hasn’t been good for a long time but it’s gotten so, so much worse,” a witness to the latter exchange was quoted as saying.
“So much worse!”
In addition, writer Olivia Nuzzi reported that Biden has become increasingly difficult to get in touch with and was “cocooned within mounting layers of bureaucracy, spoken for more than he was speaking or spoken to.”
The shocking — and belated — disclosures about Biden’s limitations were made even as he has publicly insisted on running for a second term despite a disastrous debate performance against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump June 27 in Atlanta.
The president reportedly opened the meeting with the governors by declaring that he would continue his campaign, prompting complaints from some anonymous attendees that Biden had pre-empted any serious discussion about the state of the race.
Earlier this week, Biden blamed his lackluster effort at the debate on his extensive foreign travel ahead of the event – despite the fact that he had been in the Eastern Time Zone for 10 days prior, including a solid week of prep at Camp David.
Initially, the White House had cited a “cold” as the cause of Biden’s struggles on stage, though his ailment apparently was not severe enough to prevent him from going to a Waffle House and greeting patrons after the debate.
Two days after the debate, Axios reported, citing White House aides, that Biden is prone to absent-minded gaffes and fatigue whenever he takes part in an event held before 10 in the morning or after 4 in the afternoon.
That same weekend, the Biden campaign held a fundraiser at the home of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, part of a series of events designed to serve as “both proof of life for concerned wealthy patrons of the Biden reelection [sic] effort and proof of the wisdom of their choices,” according to Nuzzi.
“In total, his [Biden’s] remarks would last for exactly ten minutes,” she wrote,” long enough to inspire confidence in his abilities, advisers hoped, but not so long that he was at increased risk of calling those abilities further into question.”
“The worry is not that Biden will say something overly candid,” the reporter added, “or say something he didn’t mean to say, but that he will communicate through his appearance that he is not really there.”
