Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear will be among Democratic governors meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House Wednesday evening.
The meeting, set to take place at 6:30 p.m., according to Biden’s public schedule, comes after the Democratic governors pushed to hear more from the White House after the president’s poor debate performance last week against former Republican President Donald Trump.
Beshear said on CNN Tuesday evening that he and his fellow Democratic governors want to know more about how the president is doing.
“When you see somebody, one of the first things you ask is, ‘How are you doing?’ And oftentimes we get way too much information in that response,” Beshear said. “It’s something that we are used to talking about. Now, that’s part of our culture. So, I don’t think it’s an attack on the White House or an attack on the president — who is a good man and a nice man — to just say, ‘Tell us a little bit more about how you’re doing.’”
Other governors who are confirmed to attend the meeting include California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, according to media reports. A spokesperson for Beshear said his attendance will be in person.
Earlier this week, Beshear pledged to continue supporting Biden as long as he remains the Democratic candidate in the race.
Biden’s debate performance on CNN last week sparked questions about his age, 81, and fitness for office in a second term. Biden spoke softly at several points, coughed and gave somewhat confusing answers throughout the night. Meanwhile, Trump, 78, repeated falsehoods, such as election fraud resulting in his 2020 loss.
Calls to replace Biden as a candidate have grown since the debate, with Texas U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett becoming the first congressional Democrat to publicly call for Biden to withdraw from the race.
Over the weekend, Beshear made several shortlists from national media outlets as a possible replacement for Democrats, along with Newsom, Vice President Kamala Harris and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. In a possible matchup against Trump, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found Beshear polling at 36% to the Republican president’s 40%. However, about 70% of the Democrats polled said they had never heard of Beshear.
In the CNN interview, correspondent Pamela Brown suggested allies of Harris have eyed Beshear as a possible running mate for her should she move up the ticket. Beshear said the national attention is a reflection of what’s happening in Kentucky.
“We have Democrats and Republicans working together. We have record job growth, record exports, record tourism. We’ve seen low recidivism. We’ve seen our drug overdose deaths go down two years in a row, which means we’re taking care of our people better,” Beshear said. “And so while it’s nice to hear your name and things like that, I’m just proud of what we have done as a state, and the president and the vice president have been very helpful in making a lot of that happen.”
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Written by McKenna Horsley. Cross-posted from the Kentucky Lantern.
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