Washington
CNN
—
The White House on Tuesday dodged tough questions about President Joe Biden’s mental state, acknowledging his poor performance in last week’s debate but insisting the president can still hold his job and run for office.
“First of all, I would say we understand the concerns. We understand it was not a good night for the president,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
She later added: “We’re not going to deny what the American people have seen.”
Tuesday’s news conference, his first since the debate, came as Biden faces one of the toughest periods of his presidency and his re-election campaign is in turmoil. Campaign officials are scrambling to calm donors shocked by Biden’s wobbly, raspy performance. The White House said Tuesday that Biden would meet with Democratic governors and congressional leaders on Wednesday, some of whom have called for a meeting with the president. Some officials are fed up with the Biden campaign ignoring concerns about the president’s health. And early Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers became the first to call on Biden to drop out of the race.
The White House preempted the first questions from reporters by announcing that Biden will appear at two high-profile events in the coming 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 has lagged his recent predecessors in formal news conferences, according to a CNN tally. Thursday’s debate drew Biden’s largest audience since his last debate with former President Donald Trump four years ago, compounding the shock some felt about Biden’s performance.
Asked whether Biden would always introduce himself like he did during the debates, Jean-Pierre cited Biden’s speech in North Carolina the day after the debate, saying, “He understands he’s not getting any younger,” and added that he would continue to focus on “working on the issues that the American people care about.”
In a thoroughly reported story published Tuesday, The New York Times reported that people in Biden’s room had grown increasingly concerned about the way the president has presented himself in recent days, saying he seemed disoriented at some points during two high-profile trips to Europe in recent weeks.
Biden has increasingly signaled he is aware of problems with his debate performance amid growing backlash within his own party. The president said at a fundraiser on Tuesday that he “nearly fell asleep onstage” during last week’s CNN presidential debate, according to a representative interviewer.
“I decided to take a couple of trips around the world shortly before the debate. I didn’t listen to my staff. I nearly fell asleep onstage,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Virginia on Tuesday night, a comment that drew laughter from attendees, according to a recording of the president’s remarks.
Reporters in the room said the “falling asleep” comment appeared to have been intended as a joke, and that Biden appeared to be trying to play down the situation in a self-deprecating way, but it didn’t seem to work.
Jean-Pierre reiterated at a news conference that Biden had been feeling unwell during last week’s debate, adding that he still had a cold. The president had not taken any cold medicine before the debate, he said.
“I don’t see this as an episode,” Jean-Pierre said, “I see it for what it is and what we believe it to be, which is that it was a bad night.”
She added that the administration has “absolutely not” concealed any information about the president’s health or ability to perform his job.
Jean-Pierre also addressed recent reports that Hunter Biden had accompanied his father to a recent White House meeting. NBC was first to report on Hunter Biden’s presence at the meeting. Jean-Pierre said the president’s son, who was convicted last month on three firearms-related felony counts, returned to the White House with his father after a weekend at Camp David and “walked into the meeting with his father” to prepare for Biden’s Monday night speech about the Supreme Court’s decision on President Trump’s immunity lawsuit.
“And he ended up spending the night with his father and his family, and that’s basically what happened,” Jean-Pierre said. “They were together at Camp David, and they came back together.”
Jean-Pierre also did not respond to a question from CNN’s MJ Lee about a CNN poll conducted after last week’s debate that showed Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of Biden in a hypothetical race against Trump.
Polls show Harris trailing Trump in a hypothetical matchup: 47% of registered voters support Trump and 45% support Harris, a result within the margin of error that suggests there would be no clear leader in such a scenario.
Jean-Pierre gave a confusing response, linking the investigation to the president’s reelection campaign.
“I can talk about the president’s record. I can talk about what he’s done,” she said. “And what he’s done and what he’s accomplished is actually consistent with what the vast majority of Americans think. And I think that’s important to note. And again, with age comes wisdom and experience, and that’s certainly what the president brings.”
In a brief interview with CBS on Tuesday afternoon, Harris dismissed the idea of running in place of Biden, saying, “Joe Biden is our candidate. We beat Trump once and we’re going to beat him again. That’s it.”
This story has been updated with additional reports.
CNN’s Betsy Klein and MJ Lee contributed to this report.