WH insists Biden will serve out a full second term, stresses ‘he has a team’ to help with emergencies
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre affirmed that President Biden plans to serve out a full second term if he wins on Nov. 5 and shrugged off concerns about him handling a hypothetical nuclear attack on the country after 8 p.m.
Last week during a private meeting with Democratic governors, Biden, 81, informed them that he’s asked his team to refrain from scheduling events after 8 p.m., the Washington Post reported.
The president’s apparent curfew became the source of questioning at Tuesday’s White House press briefing.
“He also said he’s sharpest before 8 p.m. So, say that the Pentagon at some point picked up an incoming nuke. It’s 11 p.m. Who do you call? The First Lady?” a reporter asked Jean-Pierre.
“He has a team that lets him know of any … news that is pertinent and important to the American people,” Jean-Pierre explained.
Biden also reportedly confided to the governors that he was healthy, but “it’s just my brain.” However, Jean-Pierre countered that Biden was “joking” when he said that.
Jean-Pierre further hit back at any suggestion that Biden isn’t the one calling the shots when pressed about former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) claim that first lady Jill Biden was present in a lot of Oval Office meetings.
“No, the President is the President of the United States. He makes decisions,” she said.
Jean-Pierre also largely sidestepped a question about why Hunter Biden crashed meetings with his father in the White House earlier this month.
“He is very close to his family as you know. It was the week of Fourth of July,” she said. “They walked together into the meeting.”
What to know about the calls for President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race:
- President Biden’s poor performance in the first 2024 presidential debate left some Democrats unsure of his fitness for office and future as the party’s candidate.
- More than a dozen congressional Democrats have joined in calling for Biden’s exit from the race. Former Biden supporter George Clooney echoed these calls in an op-ed published in the New York Times just weeks after he helped lead a record-breaking fundraiser for the Democrat.
- Democratic voters have continued to raise concerns about Biden’s nomination since the debate, with speculations and suggestions for replacement nominees running rampant.
- Biden’s former running mate Barack Obama has reportedly been trying to pressure him to drop out, and had prior knowledge of Clooney’s op-ed. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allegedly told Biden he could not beat former President Donald Trump this time around.
- As the Democratic National Convention approaches, California delegates for the Democratic Party are reportedly in disarray as debate over the president’s chances of re-election threatens to tear the party apart.
- However, the Biden campaign has denied any plans for Biden to bow out and for Kamala Harris to step in as the Democratic nominee. Sources close to the president believe he might not be willing to drop out, while other sources claim he is “receptive” to giving up on a second term.
Biden has been rocked by a national reckoning over his sharpness in the wake of his debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month.
During that verbal bout, Biden was seen staring blankly into the camera, mouth agape at times, while appearing to lose his train of thought on multiple occasions.
Throughout his presidency, Biden has faced questions about his age, but the debate was a rare, prolonged unscripted public event for him.
Seven House Democrats have since come forward and encouraged him to step aside and pass the baton, fearing that he won’t be able to defeat Trump come Nov. 5.
House Democrats met privately earlier in the day Tuesday to discuss the situation, but divisions over how to handle it still lingered.
Biden has refused to bow out, insisting that he would not be running if he didn’t believe with all his “heart and soul” that he can do the job.
On Monday, he penned a letter to congressional Democrats telling them that he won’t give up the nomination for presidential standard bearer.
“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now,” Biden wrote in the letter. “It’s time for it to end. We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump.”
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The octogenarian subsequently dared uneasy Democrats to challenge him for the nomination at the convention and claimed that during his subsequent time on the campaign stump, voters have rallied around him.
On Thursday, Biden is slated to hold a “big boy” NATO press conference as he seeks to reassure jittery Democrats that he’s up to the job.
