Fox News anchor Bret Baier pressed White House national security communications adviser John Kirby over President Biden’s abilities, noting that there is “real concern” among people in the country and internationally that he can do the job.
Kirby joined Baier on Tuesday evening after the president spoke at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C.
As questions of Biden’s ability to lead the country persist into its second week, Kirby sought to tame the panic by emphasizing that the president is more than capable.
“You know, a couple of elections ago, there was the 3 a.m. call. Now, there’s real concern about can he handle something that doesn’t happen between 10 and 4 p.m.?” Baier said, alluding to the reports where Biden said he needed to limit the hours he works to get more sleep.
Kirby said Biden gets calls in the middle of the night “all the time.”
The adviser said he works with the president quite a bit and said, “The Commander in Chief that I know is not what people saw … on that debate stage.”
“He’s sharp. He probes. He asked me questions yesterday about Europe that I couldn’t answer, and I had to go back and do the homework and come back to him on it,” Kirby said of his boss.
As Biden meets with leaders from the alliance this week, Kirby emphasized the decades-long politician has relationships and context that will help America on an international level, in ways that former President Trump does not.
“He takes seriously his job as commander in chief and I’m telling you, he’s got the context. He’s got the relationships. That’s the guy I know. That’s the president I’m working for,” Kirby said.
Baier pressed Kirby, noting that there is “a disconnect” between the Biden seen on the debate stage and in a recent ABC interview, and the man who his team says he is behind closed doors.
“All I can do is tell you, the guy I’ve known for two and a half years, and I didn’t know the president before I came to work at the White House, never really met him,” Kirby said. “And the man that I see every day, including today, is in command of the facts and the context.”