Biden informs governors about his recent medical examination

President Joe Biden on Wednesday evening told more than 20 Democratic governors in a private meeting that he underwent a medical checkup after last week’s debate and is fine, according to three people with knowledge of the discussion.

During an hour-long meeting prompted by intensifying concerns about his health and political viability, one governor asked Biden about his physical condition. The president mentioned having had a checkup in recent days and asserted that he remains in good health, knocking on wood for effect, according to two of those people, who were granted anonymity to describe a private meeting.

That statement — in a hastily arranged White House meeting that saw nearly a dozen governors travel to Washington while others participated virtually — came just hours after press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sidestepped direct questions from reporters who asked if he’d been examined since the debate.

“The president has regular annual physicals that we release in a thorough report,” she said. “We’re going to continue to do that.”

Biden’s remark, according to a person familiar with the president’s schedule, was in reference to a short checkup by a White House physician in the days following the debate due to lingering symptoms from his cold. The exam, that person added, was brief and did not include any major tests.

Two Democratic governors — Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and Janet Mills of Maine — expressed concern to Biden over whether he could still win their blue-leaning states, describing them as competitive, two of the people with knowledge of the discussion said. In 2020, Biden won New Mexico by 11 percentage points and Maine by 9 points.

Wednesday night’s meeting with the governors — part mea culpa, part brainstorming session, part pep rally — marks the latest effort in Biden’s push to preserve the viability of his embattled candidacy. Earlier in the day, he joined a Zoom video call with campaign and Democratic National Committee staff, pledging that “no one’s pushing me out.” He also made a round of calls to senior congressional leaders over the last few days and rearranged his holiday weekend schedule to include travel to two swing states and a sit-down interview with ABC News.

After the meeting, Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Wes Moore of Maryland and Kathy Hochul of New York told reporters they were sticking with Biden. Hochul said “all” of the governors “pledged our support to him because the stakes could not be higher.”

“What we saw in there today was a guy who was the guy that all of us believed in the first time to beat Donald Trump. And he did beat Donald Trump,” said Walz, who is chair of the Democratic Governors Association and instigated the meeting, after the governors gathered to vent and commiserate about the state of the presidential election earlier this week.

Privately, however, at least two staffers expressed concern about the uncertainty of Biden’s path forward. “They got through today, but it’s still very unclear where this goes,” said one of the staffers with direct knowledge of the meeting.

During the meeting, Biden reiterated his pledge that he wouldn’t be pushed out of the race, and that he was “in it to win it,” the staffers said. He took responsibility for his poor performance at the debate, telling the governors that he hadn’t listened to staff telling him to slow down his schedule before the debate.

Biden told the governors that he wanted to travel more and interact with more voters in unscripted events. He also acknowledged that his campaign messaging needed work, saying he needed to talk more about what was affecting voters and less about statistics.

“To me, that’s getting back to the ‘Scranton Joe’ stuff,” said one of the staffers briefed on the call. “The problem is that we have Grandpa Joe.”

A fourth person who was directly familiar with the meeting said the governors urged Biden to focus more on economic issues rather than foreign policy. They also noted that the president said he hoped to hold more listening sessions in the coming weeks and months.

Vice President Kamala Harris closed the meeting with a call for unity, a fifth person briefed on the meeting said.