Biden says he nearly fell asleep at debate, blames foreign travel despite week off to rest

President Biden on Tuesday claimed foreign travel left him so tuckered out that he nearly “fell asleep” during his disastrous debate performance last week — even though he had 13 days to recover from his most recent trip abroad, including a full week at Camp David with afternoon naps.The 81-year-old commander in chief provided the new excuse as he faces mounting calls from fellow Democrats to step aside and allow a new presidential nominee ahead of the Nov.5 election.“I decided to travel around the world a couple of times… shortly before the debate,” Biden told Democratic donors in McLean, Va.

“It wasn’t very smart [to be] traveling around the world a couple times.”“I didn’t listen to my staff… and then I almost fell asleep on stage,” the president added.Biden blamed foreign travel despite making just two brief recent foreign trips — traveling on June 5-9 to France to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day and on June 12-14 to the annual G7 summit in Italy — ahead of the June 27 CNN debate against former President Donald Trump.The president spent the first full day of his French trip at his hotel without public events.Biden was at his Rehoboth Beach getaway June 18-20 before traveling to Camp David in western Maryland, where he remained out of public view for the week before the debate.Debate prep sessions “never started before 11 a.m.and Mr.

Biden was given time for an afternoon nap each day,” the New York Times reported Tuesday.Biden’s catastrophic debate performance — which included a soft, raspy voice and unintelligible phrases such as “we finally beat Medicare” — was initially suggested by aides to be attributable at least in part to a cold.Rep.Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) on Tuesday became the first sitting member of Congress from Biden’s party to call for him to step aside — writing that Biden should follow the example of President Lyndon B.

Johnson, who chose not to seek re-election in 1968.Another Democrat, Rep.J...