Biden’s tight schedule rattles his public appearance, contends Gov. Whitmer

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer defended President Biden, saying his bad moments are just a small part of how he handles his “aggressive calendar.”

“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,” Ms. Whitmer said in a Q&A with USA Today published Tuesday, adding that it would be a “brutal calendar” for her at 52.

“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,” the Democrat added. “So, I think that now is not the time to just, I think, throw it all out because of one 90-minute debate.”

In his interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last week, Mr. Biden blamed his travel schedule for his incoherence in the June 27 debate.

Ms. Whitmer is a national co-chairwoman of the Biden campaign and has been a top advocate for him amid calls for him to drop out of the presidential race.

Her name was floated as a Biden replacement, which Ms. Whitmer said made her “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.”

When asked if a second term for Mr. Biden would be good for the country, Ms. Whitmer responded, “You know what? I’m 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 also said she’s “very concerned” that the idea of a second Trump term affects the conversation of the Democratic ticket.

Mr. Biden and his team have been adamant that he’s staying in the race. On Monday he said “the voters have spoken clearly and decisively” in the Democratic nomination process.