President Biden took some jabs at his team during his highly anticipated press conference on Thursday, complaining that they were always adding events to their schedule and suggesting that they were leaking them to the press.
Biden denied reports that suggested he recognized the need to adjust his schedule to end the day early, but said he needed to pace himself — comments that came in light of a disastrous debate performance two weeks ago that underscored concerns about his age and mental fitness.
“I’ve always had an inclination — whether playing sports or doing politics — to just keep going and going…. I just need to – just control myself a little more, control myself,” said the president.
“In the next debate, I will not travel across 15 time zones a week in advance. Anyway, that’s what it was about. That’s what it was about — and by the way, I love my team, but they add things. They add things all the time. I am suffering a lot from my wife,” she added.
The New York Times reported last week that Biden told Democratic governors during a meeting that he needed to curb events after 8 p.m., sleep more and work fewer hours.
During the press conference, Biden also lashed out at members of his administration who he suggested were leaking to the press.
“You talk to my team. You all talk to my team. Sometimes my team talks a lot. But the fact is, I don’t think they say every major idea that we’ve undertaken was not in part initiated by me,” Biden said .
On Thursday morning, both New York Times It is NBC News released reports that people close to Biden are discussing how to get him to reconsider his decision to stay in the presidential race.
Biden dismissed Democratic concerns about his candidacy, even though polls in swing states showed Donald Trump overtaking Biden and a growing number of Democrats in Congress called on the president to withdraw from the race.
Thursday night’s news conference was seen as yet another opportunity for Biden to prove the naysayers wrong, demonstrating his command of the issues and appearing more energized.
But even before his press conference, Biden mistakenly called Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky “President Putin” at a NATO event, before correcting himself. He also called Vice President Harris “Vice President Trump” at the beginning of his evening news conference.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
