At a campaign rally in Virginia last night, Joe Biden offered a new explanation for his disastrous 90-minute debate against Donald Trump, during which he appeared to lose his train of thought several times, raising concerns about his mental health.

“It wasn’t my best night, but the fact is, you know, I didn’t act very smart,” Biden said to the assembled crowd. “I decided to go around the world twice, going through about 100 time zones… before… the debate,” he explained.

“I didn’t listen to my colleagues and… I almost fell asleep on stage,” he added. “That’s not an excuse, but it’s an explanation,” he noted.

The US president visited France from June 5 to 9, then Italy from June 12 to 14, and then went to California. He then spent six days preparing for the June 27 teleconference at Camp David, a period during which he made no public appearances.

Until recently, Biden’s supporters said that he had ‘a bad night’ during the debate and stressed that he was suffering from ‘a sniffle,’ a claim echoed by his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre yesterday. The president “knows how to recover,” she also assured, ruling out the possibility of Biden undergoing a mental test.

The White House is trying to limit the damage.

Prominent Democratic officials and congressmen began publicly expressing doubts about Joe Biden’s mental and physical condition yesterday (Tuesday), with the White House and the US president himself trying unsuccessfully to limit the damage that last week’s debate appeared to have done to his candidacy.

“I hope he will make the difficult and painful decision to withdraw. I respectfully ask him to do so,” Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett wrote in a statement to the media.

He added: “I love America. I love our Party. The Democratic nominee in 2024 should be Kamala Harris.”

This Democratic congressman is the first to publicly call for Biden to drop out of the race.

For her part, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday said she was “proud” to stand with Biden.

“Joe Biden is our candidate, we beat Donald Trump once and we will beat him again,” she said while speaking to CBS News.

A rare optimistic voice in the Democratic camp, still not recovered after Thursday’s debate during which the 81-year-old president appeared confused and lost for words.

“I think it’s fair to wonder whether this is just an episode or a (permanent) situation,” 84-year-old former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a powerful Democratic influence in the House, told MSNBC, while hailing the US president’s “vision.”

“The truth, I believe, is that Biden will lose to Trump. I know it’s tough, but the debate did a lot of damage,” assessed Washington state Democratic Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

“We have to be honest with ourselves about the fact that it wasn’t just a horrible night” and that “it could have implications for the entire November election,” Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley commented yesterday on CNN.

He added, however, that “President Biden is one of the most successful presidents I’ve seen in my lifetime,” and stressed that the decision to drop out of the race “should be made by President Biden alone.”

Today the US president is scheduled to talk with the country’s Democratic governors, according to the official White House schedule.

“We’re going to have a reasonable conversation with the president,” said one of them, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, speaking last night on CNN.

“For now Joe Biden is our nominee, I support his candidacy 100 percent unless he makes another decision. In that case, we will then all discuss what is the best path to take,” he noted.

The US president will be interviewed on ABC News on Friday and the White House has committed to holding a solo press conference next week, two opportunities for him to speak without interruption.

According to a CNN poll yesterday, 75 percent of voters surveyed believe Democrats would do better in the election if they chose another candidate.

Donald Trump garnered 49% of the vote nationally, compared to 43% for Biden, a gap that remains the same as the previous poll in April.

Harris garners 45% of the preference vote, compared to 47% for Trump.