White House national security spokesman John Kirby insisted that President Joe Biden is “robust” in his role as president, saying that he sees this from Biden “every day.”
Kirby’s assessment comes as the Biden administration continues its attempt to quell concerns about Biden’s mental ability to serve as president, which have gone up exponentially since last month’s debate. The president will be attending the NATO summit in Washington this week, which could be a test for Biden on how the public sees his mental fitness.
“The president that I see every day, including yesterday a couple of times in the Oval Office, is robust. He’s lucid, he’s clear, he’s direct, and he’s in command of the context and information,” Kirby said on CNN’s News Central. “I mean, he was asking me questions yesterday about events in Europe that I simply didn‘t have the answers for, and I had to go back and come back to him with some answers. That‘s the president that I see every day. That‘s the commander in chief that I‘ve been serving the last two-and-a-half years.”
Kirby also pushed back against a report that Biden is no longer scheduling events past 8 p.m., arguing the White House “denied those claims.” He added that Biden works “a 24-hour job” as president, mirroring White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s statement that the president is working “around the clock.”
“And he also knows that the world doesn‘t take a breather after a certain time of day,” Kirby said. “That things keep going on, just like we saw this weekend in Ukraine, and he’s constantly peppering the team with questions, again, around the clock. That‘s the commander in chief that I‘ve seen, and more critically, Kate, as the commander in chief, he knows he has to be, and he has been here for the last three-and-a-half years.”
Jean-Pierre informed the press last week that Biden is “absolutely not” going to drop out of the 2024 race and that his focus is on “moving forward with his campaign.”
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Amid the division within the Democratic Party on whether or not to keep Biden on the 2024 ticket, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) called such discussions “not helpful” and called for unity within his party. When asked about his personal thoughts on the pressure for Biden to drop out, Kaine said he would only share his advice with the president.
On Monday, Biden told Democrats who are concerned about his electability to “challenge me at the convention” next month during a telephone interview. He has also released a letter to Democratic lawmakers clarifying he has no intention of dropping out of the race and that Democrats should focus on uniting as a party to defeat former President Donald Trump.