Kirby backs Biden's fitness, says president asked him a question he couldn’t answer

National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby speaks during the daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 8, 2024. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

White House national security spokesman John Kirby fended off questions about President Biden’s mental fitness from the podium Monday.

While trying to convey Biden’s mental acuity, Kirby said earlier that morning the president had asked him a question about the situation on the European continent that he couldn’t answer.

“I told him I had to get back to him,” Kirby said.

The comments had come in response to a reporter who asked whether the National Security spokesman had seen Biden conduct himself behind closed doors the same way the nation saw him during his disastrous debate performance against former President Trump late last month.

A reporter later pressed Kirby on the matter, asking again whether he had seen similar lapses in judgement behind closed doors.

Kirby said he was “uncomfortable” with these types of questions as it was “inappropriate” to respond to in his capacity as a spokesman for the White House.

“In my experience, the last two and a half years, I have not seen any reason whatsoever, to question or doubt his lucidity, his grasp of context, his probing nature, and the degree to which he is completely, in charge of facts and figures,” Kirby said.

On the anecdote for his interaction with the president earlier in the morning, Kirby said he had to “fess up” when he isn’t in command of "facts and figures.”

“And he asked me some questions this morning, I didn't have answers for,” Kirby said.