Gov. Maura Healey planned to travel to Washington, D.C. Wednesday to attend a meeting with President Joe Biden and other Democratic governors as the president looks to build support after a shaky debate performance that rattled Democrats across the nation.
Biden’s invitation to state leaders to the White House has been cast as a way to for the president to reassure and calm fears among his supporters, many who are worried that he cannot defeat former President Donald Trump in November.
In a single sentence statement released Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the governor confirmed Healey’s attendance. Aides to Healey previously advised that the governor had no public events Wednesday.
“Gov. Healey will be traveling to Washington D.C. today to attend a meeting at the White House with President Biden and other governors,” spokeswoman Karissa Hand wrote.
A campaign spokesperson for Healey declined to comment on what the governor wanted to hear or say at the meeting.
Healey, who is a super-surrogate for the president’s reelection campaign, previously acknowledged Biden’s “bad debate performance” against Trump in the CNN presidential debate last week but declined to answer whether the president should step aside to let another Democrat run for the executive office.
“Joe Biden had a bad debate performance. It was tough to watch,” Healey said a day after the debate. “I also saw Donald Trump stand up there and lie. I saw him brag about overturning Roe once again and taking away health care for women.”
The closed-door meeting was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, according to Biden’s public schedule.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who heads up the Democratic Governors Association, said state executives discussed “what was obviously a poor performance” from Biden during the debate.
Walz has said he expects the meeting at the White to cover “some of the same concerns.”
MassGOP spokesman Logan Trupiano said Healey is not going to find out anything she does not already know by going to Washington.
“She’s been a surrogate for President Biden, and has boasted her close relationship with the president,” he said. “She must have had known about his cognitive decline for a while now. Why hasn’t she spoken up?”
Biden has offered no indication that he plans to formally withdraw from the presidential race this year even as a growing chorus of Democrats call on him to do so, including state lawmakers in Massachusetts.
State Rep. Mike Connolly, a Cambridge Democrat, said it is “sad to see a person in decline” but it is time for Biden to end his campaign for re-election “and for top Democrats to stop gaslighting the American people.”
“Trump is now closer than ever to retaking the White House, and we need to do everything we can to stop him,” Connolly said on social media.
Materials from the Associated Press were used in this report.
