Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) defended President Biden in a new interview, saying many people do not realize how often he keeps up with an “aggressive calendar.”
Whitmer, a national co-chair of the Biden-Harris campaign, has reiterated her support for the president in recent days as he faces mounting calls to withdraw from the race following a poor debate showing last month. She pointed to Biden’s busy schedule in a new Q&A interview with USA Today while answering a question on his age and mental acuity.
“Well, as I said, I think that this is a 90-minute snapshot of someone who has been back and forth to Europe twice in one week,” said Whitmer, 52, adding that it would even be “a brutal calendar” for someone her age.
“And so I think about all the extraordinary things that people see, but don’t actually pause and say, wow, he actually keeps up this really aggressive calendar, and he’s showing up, and certainly there’s that debate performance, and then there’ll be millions of others where he’ll demonstrate the vigor and the capacity,” she continued. “So, I think that now is not the time to just, I think, throw it all out because of one 90-minute debate.”
Biden said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos last week that he was “feeling terrible” before the debate and previously blamed foreign travel for his rocky debate showing against former President Trump.
Numerous Democrats, including a handful of sitting lawmakers, have called on Biden to exit the race after he appeared to stumble over his words during last month’s debate. Some have suggested Biden throw his support behind a different Democrat, with some floating Vice President Harris, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro or Whitmer as possible replacements.
Whitmer said in the recent interview that talk of her replacing Biden made her feel “uncomfortable.”
“I’m a co-chair of the Biden-Harris campaign. I’m working my tail off to make sure that we’re successful. I’ve done travel, I’ve done a ton of work here in Michigan, and we’re going to do that,” she said. “So I feel like it actually undermines the work that I’m putting in on behalf of the administration. So I don’t like seeing it because I don’t want to talk about that stuff.”
Biden has maintained he will not step aside. The incumbent continues to emphasize he believes he is the best candidate to beat Trump in the fall and even dared other Democrats to challenge him at the national convention in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday.
When asked if it would be “good for the nation” if Biden decided to not run for reelection, Whitmer replied that she is “not going to entertain any conversation along that line.”
“The president is in this race, he is running, and he’s got my unequivocal support,” she said.