‘It’s Just My Brain’: Biden Tries to Laugh Off Worries About Health, Tells Governors He Needs to Work Fewer Hours

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

The New York Times on Thursday dropped its report on President Joe Biden’s meeting with Democratic governors from the day before and revealed some details certain not to calm critics of the president’s mental fitness to run for reelection.

The Times reported Biden told the governors “he needs to get more sleep and work fewer hours, including curtailing events after 8 p.m., according to two people who participated in the meeting and several others briefed on his comments.” The report added:

The remarks on Wednesday were a stark acknowledgment of fatigue from the 81-year-old president during a meeting intended to reassure more than two dozen of his most important supporters that he is still in command of his job and capable of mounting a robust campaign against former President Donald J. Trump.

Biden made clear on Wednesday he has no plans to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race despite widespread concern he is up for the campaign and can defeat Trump. Biden apparently tried to laugh off those concerns with a joke during the meeting:

After Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii, a physician, asked Mr. Biden questions about the status of his health, Mr. Biden replied that his health was fine. “It’s just my brain,” he added, according to three people familiar with what took place — a remark that some in the room took as a joke but at least one governor did not and was puzzled by.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, Mr. Biden’s campaign chair, who attended the meeting, said in a statement that he had said, “All kidding aside,” a recollection confirmed by another person briefed on the meeting. Ms. O’Malley Dillon added: “He was clearly making a joke.”

Read the full Times story here .