The State Department is disputing a report from the Wall Street Journal claiming President Biden skipped out on a meeting with German high officials to catch some sleep.

The WSJ reported Monday that Germany had arranged a meeting between Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the Schloss Elmau resort in Bavaria following the June 2022 G-7 summit.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is alleged to have arrived without Biden to that early evening lounge meeting and announced that the president would not be attending because he had to go to bed, according to two sources speaking to the WSJ.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment on the alleged incident.

‘That is absolutely not accurate,’ State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. ‘Secretary Blinken never said that or anything like it.’

The State Department gave an identical statement to the WSJ in the original report.

A source familiar with the 2022 meeting described the lounge gathering as informal and said Biden was never expected to attend.

Blinken has defended Biden in the weeks following his disastrous performance against former President Trump at the first presidential debate.

Speaking at a Brookings Institute event on July 1, Blinken claimed worldwide observers would not be dissuaded from supporting Biden due to his confused demeanor during the debate.

‘They’ve seen a president who’s reinvested America, reinvested America in the world, reinvested in these alliances, in these partnerships in ways that they seek and want,’ Blinken said.

He added that ‘confidence in American leadership has gone up dramatically’ over the course of Biden’s term in the Oval Office.

House Democrats are still at odds with each other over how to handle President Biden’s re-election campaign after a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning, as concerns grow over his viability as a candidate and his mental fitness for office.

Left-wing lawmakers were largely evasive when leaving the meeting at Democratic National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill, telling crowds of reporters they had ‘no comment’ on what went on. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., avoided reporters by departing through an alternate entrance.

Others who have publicly expressed concerns about Biden’s candidacy said they did so during the meeting as well. Democrats who spoke with Fox News Digital characterized those discussions as ‘respectful.’

But lawmakers also conceded that they were on a rapidly-shrinking timeline to either mount a caucus-wide push against Biden or get in line behind him as the nominee. Democrats’ nominating convention, in Chicago, is in mid-August.

‘I explained how I came to the decision to go public with my concerns, about how I made a lot of calls, and behind the scenes, and tried to get my voice heard before going public,’ Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., one of six House Democrats who’s asked Biden to step aside, told Fox News Digital. 

Moulton said he also ‘addressed some of the concerns that people raised about what would happen next.’

‘I think that we… either pass the baton to the vice president or have some sort of makeup primary,’ Moulton said when asked to elaborate. ‘It’ll show the American public that we’re energetic. We’re willing to change. We’re listening and responding to the people’s concerns. And we’re willing to have a serious debate within our party about the path forward, something that Republicans are obviously unwilling to do.’

When asked how his comments were taken, he said, ‘I will tell you that everybody who spoke on either side of this issue was received respectfully.’

‘People were respectful, nobody booed or cheered, it was a serious conversation that I appreciate we’re able to have in a closed-door meeting,’ Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., said when asked about disagreements.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, the first House Democrat to come out against Biden, said he also spoke up in the meeting. He told reporters, ‘I’ve had a tremendous outpouring of support in my district for the position I’ve taken. So many people saying, ‘Thank you for voicing this.’’

Other lawmakers were less willing to talk. Rep. Earl Blumenaur, D-Ore., told reporters, ‘I don’t do this in the media. It’s not helpful.’

At least six more House Democrats either declined to comment or simply did not respond when approached after the meeting by Fox News Digital.

Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, who has expressed concerns about Biden, told reporters the president has ‘got a lot of work’ to convince people he’s fit for candidacy.

All the lawmakers who Fox News Digital heard from said there was no consensus communicated by House Democratic leaders on how to move forward.

‘It was not about consensus… it was listening to discussions,’ said Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., who is emphatically behind Biden.

He told Fox News Digital he was not frustrated at those who spoke out against Biden, explaining, ‘I wanted to hear them.’

Pettersen told reporters, ‘I think that the path moving forward, you know, we’re still having discussions. But if Joe Biden doesn’t step aside, people will be united in support of the president.’

‘I think we just had a lot of, wide variety of perspectives and different pieces to highlight. There wasn’t one concise message,’ she said.

Similarly, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., said on Monday morning that he would support Biden if he was ultimately declared the nominee in August.

Biden, for his part, has said multiple times that he will not step aside and that he is the best person to take on former President Trump.

But his disastrous debate performance late last month on CNN has brought concerns about his age and mental acuity to the forefront.

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., said the matter should be solved ‘sooner than later.’

When asked about the timeline, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., pointed out that Congress only returned to session on Monday evening.

‘Obviously, everything has to be wrapped up [by August],’ he said.

As doubts grow about President Biden’s mental acuity, the spotlight turns to whether he can step down as the presidential nominee while completing his first term, and what that would mean for Vice President Kamala Harris’ political future.

‘Vice President Kamala Harris owes the American people an explanation as to why she has not been honest about President Biden’s steep decline into incapacity,’ Mike Howell, executive director of the conservative advocacy group Heritage Action, told Fox News Digital.

‘She chose politics over national security and history will judge her for that decision.’

Howell added that Democratic lawmakers are unlikely to call for Biden to retire immediately and allow Harris to take the helm, because ‘to admit that is that they’ve basically been complicit in a lie for the last three and a half years,’ referring to Biden’s declining health.

‘Him stepping down is an implicit endorsement of Kamala Harris being the nominee, because she would be the incumbent president at that point, and so I think that factors into it,’ Howell said. ‘What’s happening right now is there’s just going to be a series of rounds of people increasingly calling for it, and obviously President Biden’s trying to resist those calls as much as possible. But I think it’s unavoidable that more and more do call.’

Despite the growing chorus of concerned lawmakers calling on Biden to suspend his re-election campaign due to his poor debate performance and fading vitality, Biden has repeatedly said he is not dropping out of the race.

‘Most of the Democrats who are questioning whether or challenging President Biden should run are in either swing districts or tough re-election races of their own, or they need independent and Republican votes,’ Democratic strategist Mustafa Rashed told Fox News Digital in an interview.

‘It’s tough,’ Rashed continued. ‘The advantage that the vice president has is that she’s been adjacent to the Oval Office for the last three and a half years, which is something that no one else can say. I would also say that she’s the only person that’s been nationally, publicly and thoroughly vetted right now, like some of the other candidates have not gone through the sort of vetting process that’s required to run for national office.’

Other potential Democratic candidates who have been floated as options to replace Biden include Gov. Gavin Newsom, of California, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, of Michigan.

When asked at a Biden-Harris campaign event in New Hampshire this week, Newsom said Harris would likely win in a hypothetical matchup against former President Trump. 

‘I have no doubt about that. And that’s from someone that’s also known her longer than most, before we were both in politics,’ Newsom said, The Associated Press reported. ‘But I don’t expect it’s going to come to that.’

Democrats also met behind closed doors Monday as pressure mounted on Biden to drop out of the race. 

Fox News learned that multiple Democrats on House committees expressed concerns about the viability of Biden continuing to run for re-election against Trump after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., held a virtual meeting with ranking Democrats on House panels Sunday afternoon.

Fox is told the consensus among most Democrats on the call who suggested Biden should abandon the race was that the party should focus on Harris as a potential successor.

Additionally, a recent CNN/SSRS poll shows Harris performing slightly better than Biden in a matchup against Trump.

House Republicans are already on the offense against Harris as a possible replacement for Biden’s candidacy should he step down from the race.

GOP lawmakers – in both safe red seats and swing districts being targeted by the left – dismissed Harris as a political threat to their chances in November, arguing she’s still tied to the same progressive Biden policies they believe are unpopular with voters.

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., who served as longtime chair of the New York Republican Party before coming to Congress, previously told Fox News Digital, ‘Kamala Harris is just as responsible for this administration’s failures, but she’s more incompetent.’

A swing-seat Republican who asked not to be named told Fox News Digital they were skeptical Harris would do better on the debate stage than Biden. 

‘I would say she’s the weakest part of the ticket right now, as bad as Biden is,’ that GOP lawmaker said.

Reps. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., Mark Takano, D-Calif., Don Beyer, D-Va., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., reportedly expressed privately that Biden should exit the presidential race as the Democratic nominee on Sunday. Most of them also reportedly said Harris should be the nominee, two people familiar with the meeting told The Associated Press. 

Following reports on the meeting, Beyer issued a statement saying he backs the president staying in the race. 

‘I support President Biden. I support the Biden-Harris ticket, and look forward to helping defeat Donald Trump in November,’ the representative said. ‘I was proud to host an event this week in Northern Virginia with the President, and will continue doing all I can to support the Biden-Harris campaign in Virginia and across the country.’

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind, Greg Wehner and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Some lawmakers are making the case that the Biden presidency is a group effort in order to quell concerns over the president’s mental sharpness and health, as the party stands in disarray with some members considering strategies to dissuade President Biden from seeking re-election.

‘A presidency is more than just one man, one woman, it’s an administration,’ former Obama administration Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ last week. ‘I would take Joe Biden’s worst day at age 86, so long as he has people around him like Avril Haines, Sam Power, Gina Raimondo supporting him, over Donald Trump any day.’

The Wall Street Journal also published a report Monday that outlined how Biden’s ‘inner circle’ – made up of Democrat donors and aides – reportedly kept his signs of aging a secret. Republicans have been more openly skeptical of Biden’s closest aides around him, questioning whether Biden is really at the helm of the country’s leadership at all.

‘Donald Trump’s running on common sense, on restoring common sense versus the lunacy of the last four years in the far left and the shadow government that now is running our country with Joe Biden as its figurehead. That’s what he’s running against,’ Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ Sunday.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., – a strong Trump ally – echoed Rubio’s belief that there is a ‘shadow government’ made up of tight knit Democrat strategists, aides and lawmakers helping Biden behind the scenes. 

‘We’ve all known Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and Obama’s been running the country along with [Secretary of State] Blinken and [National Security Advisor] Sullivan,’ Tuberville said on Fox News Channel’s ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’ ‘You can tell by Schumer’s actions, Pelosi’s actions, the first two years they were calling the shots.’

‘Hopefully, the people understand that they’ve had total control, not the president but Schumer and Pelosi and all the deep state,’ Tubrerville continued. ‘The deep state’s total control over this, and hopefully we can get control of it and get the Democrats out of power and get Trump and all the Republicans running this country.’

Congressional Democrats will hold caucus meetings on Tuesday regarding Biden’s re-election bid as the party becomes more concerned with the president’s ability to beat former President Trump in November. Lawmakers exiting the meetings have been tight-lipped, though at least one has said there is ‘no consensus’ regarding Biden.

For his part, Biden has repeatedly stated that he will not resign from the race. He issued a public letter to House Democrats on Monday demanding an ‘end’ to the party drama.

‘I am running. I am the leader of the Democratic Party. No one is pushing me out,’ Biden said, according to an aide who posted his comment on X, formerly Twitter, last week.

To prove he has the vitality to remain president another four years, the Biden-Harris campaign has organized a slew of nationwide campaign stops – including across swing states – for Biden to headline.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not hear back by press deadline. 

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report. 

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced four principles that it says must be part of any hostage release deal with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. 

The declaration comes as the ‘Prime Minister’s steadfast position against the attempt to halt IDF action in Rafah is what has led Hamas to enter negotiations,’ the office says. The city in the southern Gaza Strip has been described as Hamas’ last stronghold following months of fighting in the war-torn territory. 

The principles are: 

‘Any deal will allow Israel to resume fighting until all objectives of the war have been achieved.’ 

Israel has repeatedly said its military campaign against Hamas will not end until the Palestinian terrorist group is eliminated. 

Netanyahu, who made this vow in late June, also said months ago that ‘Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population.’ 

‘Our goal is to rid Gaza of Hamas terrorists and free our hostages. Once this is achieved, Gaza can be demilitarized and deradicalized, thereby creating a possibility for a better future for Israel and Palestinians alike,’ Netanyahu said in a video posted on X in January. 

‘There will be no smuggling of weapons to Hamas from Egypt to the Gaza border.’ 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released video footage in June showing tunnels allegedly used by Hamas to smuggle weapons into Gaza from Egypt, according to The Times of Israel. 

At least 20 tunnels crossing from Egypt into Gaza have been detected, the outlet reported.

Throughout the nine-month war, Israeli troops have discovered a labyrinth of tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip that are integral to Hamas’ movements and military operations. 

‘There will be no return of thousands of armed terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip.’ 

The prime minister’s office is vowing that armed terrorists should not be allowed to return to the northern Gaza Strip in its vision for a post-war Gaza. 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said on Friday that ‘up to 1.9 million people in Gaza are internally displaced, including people who have been displaced nine or 10 times.  

‘Previous estimations were 1.7 million but this was before the operation in Rafah, and since May there have been additional displacements from Rafah and other parts across the Gaza Strip,’ the agency added. 

‘Israel will maximize the number of living hostages who will be released from Hamas captivity.’ 

Approximately 116 hostages are still believed to be held by Hamas since the beginning of the war last Oct. 7. 

Over the past nine months, 109 hostages have been released, seven have been rescued by the IDF, and the bodies of 19 have been recovered by the military from Gaza, including three who were mistakenly killed by troops.

Fox News’ Yonat Friling and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report. 

President Biden’s staffers reportedly prepare him with meticulous details on how to enter and exit fundraiser event spaces. 

According to a copy of the instructions obtained by Axios, Biden’s aides created a document that read in bold letters, ‘Walk to podium.’ With the White House insignia, it included photos showing a clear pathway to the podium. 

Axios cited some Democrats who attended or helped set up events for Biden in recent months as wondering whether the meticulous attention to detail is more of a reflection of the 81-year-old president’s limitations. 

‘I staffed a simple fundraiser at a private residence, but they treated it like it was a NATO summit with his movements,’ one person, who reportedly staffed a Biden event in the past 18 months, told Axios. 

Axios obtained a copy of a five-page document template that the White House reportedly sends to staffers to prepare the president. 

The document reportedly also usually included a large picture of the event space on each page. The messages ‘View from podium,’ and ‘View from audience’ are written. 

Biden’s disastrous debate performance against former President Trump in Atlanta has prompted serious concerns from within the Democratic Party about the president’s viability to run for a second term. The White House insists that these detailed instructions for the 81-year-old president are nothing out of the ordinary.

‘High levels of detail and precision are critical to presidential advance work – regardless of who is president – and these are basic approaches that are used by any modern advance team, including the Vice President’s office and agencies,’ White House senior deputy press secretary and deputy assistant to the president Andrew Bates said in a statement to Fox News Digital, reacting to the report. ‘And then-Vice President Biden’s team did the same, as did other principals, during the second term of the Obama-Biden Administration.’

‘These documents are standard logistical briefing materials and photos for any principal including the Vice President,’ Vice President Harris’ communications director Kirsten Allen added. 

A House Democrat backing President Biden is blasting members of his own party for speaking out against Biden’s 2024 candidacy in public, arguing it is putting the president in a worse position amid the fallout from the 81-year-old’s disastrous debate performance last month.

Congress is back in session on Monday for the first time since the immediate fallout of Biden’s debate performance, and it is expected to bring a heap of scrutiny on Democratic lawmakers.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., who has signaled he is backing Biden, called his fellow Democrats out for the public disarray.

‘Regardless of where one stands on the question of President Biden’s political future, the intra-party mixed messaging strikes me as deeply self-destructive,’ Torres said Monday. ‘Those publicly calling on President Biden to withdraw should ask themselves a simple question: ‘what if the President becomes the Democratic nominee?’ The drip, drip, drip of public statements of no confidence only serve to weaken a president who has been weakened not only by the debate but also by the debate about the debate.’

‘Weakening a weakened nominee seems like a losing strategy for a presidential election. The piling-on is not so much solving a problem as much as it is creating and compounding one. The process by which we decide how to move forward matters as much as the decision itself.’

The debate has led to more intra-party fractures within the House Democratic caucus as members are split on calls for Biden to drop out of the race. 

Over the past week, five House Democrats have publicly urged Biden to step aside ahead of his November rematch with former President Trump. 

A senior House Democratic aide told Fox News Digital on Friday that they anticipate more people to join the list this week.

However, Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., a Biden ally, took a shot at her colleagues on Sunday for criticizing the president.

‘Any ‘leader’ calling for President Biden to drop out needs to get their priorities straight and stop undermining this incredible actual leader who has delivered real results for our country,’ she said in a statement. ‘What Democrats need to be doing is stop listening to these political pundits and focus on what’s at stake this election: our democracy. End of story.’

It is part of the political minefield the Biden campaign has been navigating since last month’s CNN Presidential Debate. The 81-year-old president’s hoarse voice and sometimes aimless answers exacerbated concerns that he is not a viable candidate to face Trump in November and spurred questions over whether he is fit to lead in a second term.

This week will be the longest time House Democrats have had to face each other and the Capitol Hill media since that debate. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has said very little about Biden’s debate performance, only telling reporters on Friday that he was dedicated to making sure Democrats win in November. 

‘Until he articulates a way forward in terms of his vision for America at this moment, I’m going to reserve comment about anything relative to where we are at this moment, other than to say I stand behind the ticket,’ Jeffries told reporters on Friday.

House Democrats held a caucus-wide call on Sunday afternoon to discuss the path forward in the election. Four senior Democratic lawmakers – Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Mark Takano, D-Calif., Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Joe Morelle, D-N.Y. – reportedly said Biden should step aside.

There was more confusion on the left after the call, however, when Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., responded to reports that he too criticized Biden with a statement declaring: ‘I support President Biden. I support the Biden-Harris ticket, and look forward to helping defeat Donald Trump in November. I was proud to host an event this week in Northern Virginia with the President, and will continue doing all I can to support the Biden-Harris campaign in Virginia and across the country.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the four lawmakers mentioned on the call for comment.