Foreign
Biden suggests to allies he may limit evening events to get more sleep
President Joe Biden suggested to Democratic governors that he may limit evening events after 8 p.m. so he can get more sleep, according to two sources familiar with the exchange.
Biden met with the governors on Wednesday evening as he sought to assuage allies’ concerns after a disastrous debate performance left Democrats anxious about the president’s ability to serve and campaign for re-election.
He also joked that while his health was fine, “it’s just my brain,” one source told NBC News.
The remarks were first reported by The New York Times and are part of a stream of leaks about the contents of the meeting, which was not attended by staff for the governors, the White House or the campaign. He also said he’d seen a doctor after the debate, contradicting a White House claim from earlier.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Biden surrogate who was on the call and is viewed as a potential future Democratic presidential candidate, said Biden’s 8 p.m. comment was not “literal.”
“It was more of a rhetorical framework of just being fit and rested because he was burning at both ends, you know, that last 10 or so days. And I think that was sort of what he was reflecting, is just a more steady focus on being his energetic self,” Newsom said.
A fourth person with knowledge of the meeting downplayed the president’s comments about needing more sleep, adding that Biden acknowledged generally he does need to be better at finding time to rest.
The Biden campaign defended the remarks, saying presidents need a balanced schedule.
“President Bush went to bed at 9, and President Obama made dinner at 6:30. Normal presidents strike a balance, and so does Joe Biden,” campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement. “Hardly the same rigor as Donald Trump who spends half of his day ranting on Truth Social about plans that would cause a recession and other half golfing.”
In the week since the debate, Democrats have expressed frustration over both Biden’s debate performance and how he and White House staff have handled allies’ response to it.
The president is expected to do damage control in an interview with ABC News on Friday morning that will air that evening, but some doubt it will be enough.
“One interview is not going to fix this,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., on MSNBC Thursday. “He’s got one thing to do, which is to get up and go out to prove to people that he can do the job, will do the job, and has the stamina.”
California Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat, questioned Biden’s ability to win in November in an interview with a local CBS affiliate and said he wasn’t sure he could support the president at this point.
“The campaign has been very, I think, arrogant in its response,” he said, arguing they needed to turn around the numbers in swing states. “If they don’t have a plan, then I think we have to move in a different direction.”
But Peters and Dingell stopped short of calling for Biden to step aside as the party’s nominee for president. Just two House Democrats have publicly said Biden should leave the race.
Still, some allies are maintaining staunch support.
Newsom hit the campaign trail in Michigan on Thursday, touting the governor’s meeting.
“I mean this with absolute conviction,” he said of the meeting. “That was the Joe Biden I remember from two weeks ago. That was the Joe Biden that I remember from two years ago. That’s the Joe Biden that I’m looking forward to reelecting President of the United States.”
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday pledged to “stop the transgender lunacy” on day one of his presidency, as Republicans — set to control both chambers of Congress and the White House — continue their push against LGBTQ rights.
“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” the president-elect said at an event for young conservatives in Phoenix, Arizona.
He also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports,” adding that “it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
Speaking to the AmericaFest conference in a border state he easily carried in the November election, Trump further promised immediate measures against “migrant crime,” vowed to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and doubled down on his talk of restoring US control of the Panama Canal.
Transgender issues have roiled US politics in recent years, as Democratic- and Republican-controlled states have moved in opposite directions on policy such as medical treatment and what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.
Last week, when the US Congress approved its annual defense budget, it included a provision to block funding of some gender-affirming care for the transgender children of service members.
In his speech Sunday, which amounted to something of a victory lap, Trump made expansive promises for his second term — and drew a dark picture of the four years preceding it, under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the latter of whom he defeated in the 2024 election.
“On January 20, the United States will turn the page forever on four long, horrible years of failure, incompetence, national decline, and we will inaugurate a new era of peace, prosperity and national greatness,” Trump said, referring to his swearing-in.
– ‘Golden age’ –
“I will end the war in Ukraine. I will stop the chaos in the Middle East, and I will prevent, I promise, World War III.”
He added: “The golden age of America is upon us.”
Fresh Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 25 Palestinians, according to medics.
The casualties on Friday included at least eight people in an apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp and 10 others in the town of Jabalia, among them seven children.
Efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have yet to succeed.
Sources involved in the negotiations told Reuters on Thursday that Qatar and Egypt had resolved some points of contention but key issues remain unresolved.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza following Hamas-led attacks on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023.
The attacks resulted in the deaths of 1200 people and the abduction of over 250 hostages, according to Israeli reports.
Israel states that approximately 100 hostages are still being held, though it is unclear how many remain alive.
Gaza authorities report that Israel’s ongoing campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians and displaced the majority of the 2.3 million residents.
Much of the territory has reportedly been devastated by the conflict.
President Biden signed the stopgap funding bill that will keep the government open until March, punting the thornier issues surrounding the nation’s finances to the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
A bloated 1,500-page funding measure was exploded by Trump and his top ally Elon Musk earlier this week as they demanded a pared-down version.
The parties were able to cobble a stopgap bill together Friday evening, which passed the Senate early Saturday morning.
The package funds the government at current levels until March 14, 2025, and includes $100 billion in hurricane relief funds and $10 billion in aid to farmers.
With the stopgap funding only running until March, an almost certain clash is looming between Trump and GOP spending hardliners when Congress reconvenes in January.
“The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open and delivers the urgently needed disaster relief that I requested for recovering communities as well as the funds needed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” Biden said in a statement after inking the deal.
The post Biden signs bipartisan funding bill to keep government open appeared first on New York Post.
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