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Biden press conference has high stakes as campaign teeters
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at a press conference during the NATO 75th anniversary summit in Washington, U.S., July 11, 2024.
Yves Herman | Reuters
A reporter pointed out Biden’s mistake in the final question of the press conference, asking the president to comment on the mistake after Trump used it to mock him. Biden smiled to himself and replied, “Listen to him,” before walking off the stage.
Thursday’s press conference was billed as Biden’s best opportunity yet to prove to Democrats that he can handle tough questions and think quickly in an improvised environment.
Pressure for Biden to drop out of the 2024 race has increased in recent weeks following his disastrous debate performance against Trump on June 27 and his campaign’s subsequent failure to allay voters’ concerns about his health.
However, it quickly became clear that Biden’s hour-long press conference did not allay Democrats’ concerns.
Four minutes after leaving the stage, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, released a statement calling for Biden to drop out of the race.
Shortly afterward, Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., followed suit. “The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course,” Peters said in a statement.
As he has done all week, Biden flatly rejected any suggestion that he should or would drop out, insisting that there was no one more capable of defeating Trump in November than he was.
Biden, however, admits he would consider abandoning the race if his team came and said there was “no chance” of him winning.
Despite coming on a mission to rescue his faltering campaign, the president misspoke and appeared to lose his train of thought several times while answering reporters’ questions. Trump and his campaign posted several clips of Biden’s gaffes on Social Truth.
In another memorable slip-up, Biden referred to his chief of staff as “my commander in chief” before realizing his mistake.
Sometimes he also gave meandering answers, such as a seven-minute answer to a question about China. As he gave it, he would occasionally stop mid-sentence and stumble over his words.
“Some of our European friends are going to reduce their investments in Russia, I mean, sorry, in China,” the president said.
When he cited figures, he repeatedly prefaced them with a warning that he might get the number wrong: “Don’t hold me to the exact number.”
Biden also frequently interrupted himself mid-sentence, veering off into unrelated topics as he worked to make his case for reelection: “There’s still a lot we can do. I’m determined to do it. It’s about freedom. By the way, I’m going to finish this, well, I’m not going to do that… Haley has to go up too,” he said before trailing off.
Early Thursday evening, Biden added salt to his political wounds in a script NATO Event honoring Ukraine, where he accidentally introduced the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”.
“And now I want to turn it over to the President of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said, before quickly correcting himself.
The last time Biden held a solo press conference was in November 2023, following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping In California.
This time, the president faced a new level of pressure with the future of his re-election campaign at stake.
With each day since his June debate failure, new cracks have emerged in the support for Biden among Democratic lawmakers, donors, fundraisers and strategists.
Hours before Biden’s highly anticipated press conference, one of his campaign surrogates told NBC News that the president needs to give up: “He’s never going to recover from this.”