PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan revealed on Wednesday that the reason he took an abrupt leave of absence after announcing that the PGA would merge with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf was because he had anxiety over the deal.

Monahan made the admission while talking to reporters ahead of this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind, according to ESPN.

“I think the reality for me was that I was dealing with anxiety, which created physical and mental health issues and challenges for me,” Monahan said. “And I realized that I needed to step away and to deal with that and understand how to develop the skills to deal with that going forward.”

“To step away at that point in time was very difficult for me, but I needed to take care of myself and my family, and ultimately come back here stronger than I’ve ever been to lead the PGA Tour forward. And my family and my doctors supported me coming back.”

The merger negotiations happened in secret and only became public on June 6, 2023. There was widespread backlash to the announcement, including from some of the top players in the game, and the following week, Monahan took the leave of absence.

“I think everyone knows my nature and my nature is to always be one to run into a fight or a conflict, not run away from it,” Monahan claimed. “Because I had world-class medical care, I fully committed to the process. I was not going to come back until I was told by doctors and medical experts and my wife and my girls that I was fully supported in coming back. And that was not something that was a certainty when I stepped away.”

Monahan faced intense criticism after the deal was announced from a 9/11 families group who said that they were betrayed by him.

“PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation,” said 9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died in the World Trade Center’s North Tower. “But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones.”

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“Make no mistake – we will never forget,” the statement continued. “Mr. Monahan talked last summer about knowing people who lost loved ones on 9/11, then wondered aloud on national television whether LIV Golfers ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour. They do now as does he. PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed. Our entire 9/11 community has been betrayed by Commissioner Monahan and the PGA as it appears their concern for our loved ones was merely window-dressing in their quest for money – it was never to honor the great game of golf.”

President Joe Biden snapped at a journalist who asked him about claims that he talked about business with his son Hunter‘s associates.

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy caught up with the president at an event on Wednesday, broaching the issue of the Biden family’s financial entanglements — which may soon lead to an impeachment inquiry.

“There’s this testimony now where one of your son’s former business associates is claiming that you were on speakerphone a lot with them talking business? Is that what …” Doocy said before Biden interjected.

“I never talked business with anybody,” Biden shot back. “I knew you’d have a lousy question.” Asked why it was a “lousy question,” the president added: “Because it’s not true!”

"Your son's former business associates is claiming that you were on speakerphone a lot with them talking business?"

BIDEN: "I never talked business with anybody! I knew you'd have a lousy question."

"Why is that a lousy question?"

BIDEN: "Because it's not true!" pic.twitter.com/R4OYvbc12N

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 9, 2023

The back-and-forth was the latest in a series of tense exchanges between Doocy and Biden.

Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter, recently testified to the House Oversight Committee, a lightly redacted transcript of which was released last week.

Hunter Biden put his father on speaker phone roughly 20 times during meetings with business associates, according to Archer, who said these calls were “signal enough to be powerful” despite the conversations sticking to casual topics such as the weather or fishing. Archer also said the elder Biden attended some dinners with his son’s foreign business associates.

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For years, Joe Biden claimed to have never spoken to Hunter about his business dealings, a claim that was challenged by another one of the first son’s former business associates, Tony Bobulinski, who came forward in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign to say he had “firsthand” knowledge that the assertion was untrue.

Lately, amid GOP inquiries spurred by concerns about a pattern of millions of dollars flowing to members of the First Family from foreign nationals under suspicious circumstances, the White House has taken to saying the elder Biden never did business with his son. This shift in messaging was noted in a new memo from Republican House Oversight Committee staff that alleges Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from oligarchs in foreign countries.

In a section called “The Biden White House’s Attempt to Move the Goalposts Shows They Have No Answers,” the memo said: “The White House’s latest claim that the ‘President was not in business with his son’ is a marked departure from previous attempts to counter the Committee’s investigation. President Biden and White House spokespersons previously stated that the President had no knowledge of his son’s business and did not discuss business with his son.”

Although White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has insisted to reporters that “nothing has changed,” the oversight panel’s memo said the “Office of White House Counsel refuses to answer questions about this departure from previous statements.”