President Biden criticized his staff several times during a highly anticipated news conference Thursday, complaining that they were always adding events to his schedule and suggesting they were leaking information to the press.
Biden denied reports suggesting he acknowledged the need to adjust his schedule to finish the day faster but said he had to pace himself. The comments came after his poor debate performance two weeks ago and highlighted concerns about his age and mental health.
“Whether it’s sports or politics, I always have a tendency to want to go nonstop…. But I have to pace myself a little more,” the president said.
“For the next debate, I’m not going to travel 15 time zones a week before. That’s what the debates are for, anyway. That’s what the debates are for. And by the way, I still love my staff, but they add something. They always add something. I get a bad treatment from my wife,” he added.
The New York Times Reported last week During the meeting, Biden reportedly told Democratic governors that they needed to limit events after 8 p.m., get more sleep and cut work hours.
At a press conference, Biden accused someone in his administration of leaking information to the media.
“Talk to my staff. You talk to my staff. My staff does a lot of talking at times. But I don’t think they’re actually saying that some of the major ideas that we’ve implemented were not suggested by me,” Biden said.
Early Thursday morning, The New York Times and NBC News They published reports that people close to Biden are discussing ways to get him to reconsider his decision to remain in the presidential race.
Polls in battleground states have Donald Trump narrowly ahead of Biden, and there are growing calls among congressional Democrats for the president to drop out of the race, but Biden has denied Democrats’ concerns about his candidacy.
Thursday night’s news conference was seen as another opportunity for Biden to prove his opponents wrong by demonstrating his understanding of the issues and appearing more energetic.
But earlier in the day, Biden had referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” at a NATO event before later correcting himself, and at the start of his evening press conference, he referred to Vice President Harris as “Vice President Trump.”
