WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday at a news conference after a NATO summit in Washington made a consistent case for reelection in 2024, even as a growing list of rank-and-file Democrats and influential supporters urged him to abandon the campaign due to suspected health issues.
The highly anticipated news conference followed weeks of speculation about Biden’s fitness for office and whether he should remain in the 2024 presidential election against former President Donald Trump. His performance, while clearly better than his devastating debate performance, still included a significant gaffe and could leave open questions.
In response to the first question, whether Vice President Kamala Harris would be a good candidate to run against Trump, Biden mixed up their names.
“I would not have selected Vice President Trump to be my vice president if I did not think she was qualified to be president,” he said.
Biden fielded a wide range of questions from reporters in the U.S. and abroad for less than an hour. The press briefing came exactly two weeks after the June 27 debate, during which Biden repeatedly stumbled, spoke in a hoarse voice and seemed unable to finish some sentences.
Biden and the White House have repeatedly called the debate a “bad night” and pointed to the positive results of his last three annual physicals.
Asked directly about Democrats in Congress anxiety regarding his candidacy, Biden has said he has made a final decision to stay in the race but is trying to show skeptics he is up to the task and is responding to criticism that he will not be able to handle impromptu questioning.
“I’m committed to running,” he said. “But I think it’s important for me to allay those fears by seeing — by letting them see me there.”
Don’t move away
He added that delegates who pledged to vote for him in the democratic nominating process should be free to vote according to their conscience, but no one had a better alternative than his candidacy against Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
“I think I’m the most qualified to govern, and I think I’m the most qualified to win,” Biden said. “But there are other people who could beat Trump, but it’s awfully hard to start from scratch.”
Asked if he would concede if polls showed Harris could beat Trump, Biden said he wouldn’t unless they also showed she had no chance of winning.
“Nobody is saying that,” he added in a whisper. “No poll is saying that.”
Harris is considered the most likely successor to Biden if he drops out of the race.
The few Democrats in Congress are calling on him to drop out of the race. From July 2nd turned to the stream this week — some reports indicate impoverished performance Thursday evening could lead to flooding.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime friend of Biden, persuaded colleagues in an MSNBC interview Wednesday to “let (Biden) get on with this NATO conference, it’s a very important thing.”
As Biden began his Thursday news conference, 14 Democrats in Congress explicitly called on him to drop out of the race, and others suggested so.
Shortly after the news conference ended, two more representatives — Jim Himes of Connecticut and Scott Peters of California — called on Biden to resign.
Biden should “create space for a new generation of leaders,” Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement sent to X.
Peters’ statement was: provided to Politico.
Focus on foreign policy
Biden, who has rarely held news conferences, consulted with a roster of reporters and fielded questions ranging from his fitness to serve as president to his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas.
He praised his achievements in office and said his work shows he is still fit for the job.
“If I slow down, I can’t do the task, that’s a sign that I shouldn’t be doing it,” he said. “But there’s no sign of that yet. None.”
Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, seemed more comfortable answering questions about foreign policy than about his political future, giving comprehensive answers about Israel’s war with Hamas, China’s growing influence on the world stage and Ukraine’s war with Russia.
Trump mocks Biden
While Biden’s voice and grasp of the issues seemed stronger than during the debate, he still made several oratory errors, including confusing his vice president with Trump.
Biden, Trump trade insults, accusations of lying in bitter presidential debate
Trump mocked the mistake on his social media platform Truth Social, posting: “Great job, Joe!”
Biden later said Harris was qualified to be president and that was why he had chosen her as his vice presidential running mate. His comments were notable given that Harris likely would have been nominated had Biden stepped down.
Biden attacks Trump over NATO
Biden called the summit a “great success” and stressed the U.S. commitment to Ukraine’s alliance and war with Russia.
“Those who thought NATO’s time was up got a rude awakening when Putin invaded Ukraine. Some of the oldest and deepest fears in Europe were revived as, once again, a murderous maniac was on the loose. This time, no one cowered in a gesture of appeasement, least of all the United States,” Biden said.
Before taking questions, he attacked Trump for disregarding NATO and its fundamental commitment to defending other member states. The former president threatened to withdraw from NATO and accused allies of underspending the organization’s defense funds.
“A strong NATO is essential to America’s security, and I believe the Article Five obligation is sacred. And I remind all Americans that Article Five has only been invoked once in NATO’s long history, and that was to defend America after 9/11,” Biden said.
The three-day summit largely focused on Russia’s ongoing bombing and occupation of parts of Ukraine. World leaders promised Ukraine a path to joining the alliance, and the event ended with the U.S. joining two dozen allies in signing the Ukraine Pact to “(a) reaffirm that Ukraine’s security is an integral part of the security of the Euro-Atlantic region and beyond.”
Biden he sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier on Thursday to highlight military assistance that includes “working with our NATO allies to ensure that Ukraine is flying F-16s this summer.”
Zelensky thanked Biden for his “support and personal statement” following Russia’s attack on a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday. Biden shook his head and responded by saying the attack was “sick.”
Another blunder
Between his meeting with Zelensky and the news conference, Biden introduced the Ukrainian president at a separate event where the agreement was signed but incorrectly referred to him as President Putin — the Russian leader at war with Zelensky’s country — before correcting himself.
Asked about the gaffe, Biden acknowledged the mistake but added that he immediately fixed it.
“I think it was the most successful conference I’ve been to in a long time, and there’s no world leader who wouldn’t think so,” he replied.
Biden didn’t stumble at the beginning of the week when he made his remarks during NATO’s 75th anniversary celebrations; on the contrary, his voice remained firm and resolute as he opened the ceremony for the leaders of the 32 member states.
