No, there was no single answer or flub or gaffe that was a catastrophic disaster, the killing blow, to Joe Biden’s campaign. He survived his joust with the press, at least according to the clearing-a-bar-that’s-resting-on-the-floor standard of Joe Biden ’24. At no other time in the modern era of the American presidency could any candidate survive the depression-inducing visual and auditory performance that Joe Biden delivered Thursday evening at his “Big Boy press conference” at the NATO summit in Washington.
It will, however, be enough.
Is there a single Democratic politician or campaign operative or voter who believes that Joe Biden looked good in that press conference? No. Only blood relatives or Biden’s personal staff who owe him their livelihoods will argue that, actually, Biden showed strength in his 50 minutes in front of the press.
But it will be enough for any Democrat who wants to avert his eyes and hide in a hole rather than confront the fact that Biden’s campaign has already been mortally wounded for 14 days.
Biden read prepared remarks off a teleprompter and answered questions from a pre-selected list of reporters Thursday night at NATO’s 75th anniversary summit, addressing a range of subjects including the history of NATO, Russia’s war against Ukraine, inflation, and Israel’s war against Hamas. The embattled president showed signs of his age throughout the event, as he coughed, whispered, stumbled over his words, and at time lost his stream of thought, at one point even referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”
“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be vice president,” Biden said, defending his choice of Harris as his running mate. At the end of the press conference, Biden told reporters to “listen to him,” in response to a question about the gaffe.
The verbal flubs didn’t stop Biden from challenging his critics to find fault with his record and insisting that he was best positioned to defeat Trump.
“I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once and I will beat him again,” Biden asserted.
Asked whether it would harm his legacy if he were to lose to Trump in November, he challenged the premise of the question, saying “I’m not in this for my legacy.” He subsequently explained why he abandoned his “bridge” candidate pledge instead of anointing a successor.
“What changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited,” Biden said, citing the economic turbulence and geopolitical crisis of his first term. “My long time in the Senate equipped me to have the wisdom on how to deal with the Congress to get things done.”
Biden did acknowledge his need to slow down and his staffers’s desire to add events to his schedule, a tendency he said angered First Lady Jill Biden.
“I love my staff, but they add things. They add things all the time. I’m catching hell from my wife,” Biden stated.
At times, Biden gave long-winded, rambling answers on foreign policy, going into detail about working with world leaders and cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. During these stream of conscious answers, Biden repeatedly lost his trains of thought and stumbled over his words, repeating “anyway” and “the idea” as verbal crutches.
Asked about how he would fare at the end of a second term, Biden maintained that he’d be ready to deal with the leaders of hostile countries.
“I’m ready to deal with them now and three years from now,” Biden said of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin, America’s two most powerful adversaries.
“To answer the question on everyone’s minds: No, Joe Biden does not have a doctorate in foreign affairs,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said on X, broadcasting how the Biden camp feels about his showing.
“He’s just that f*cking good.”
A growing cohort of Democratic lawmakers and prominent allies in the media have openly discussed the possibility of replacing Biden atop the presidential ticket in the wake of his disastrous debate performance.
At the Democratic National Convention next month, Biden said his pledged delegates can “do whatever they want.” Biden downplayed polls showing him losing to Trump and widespread concerns about his candidacy.
Facing intense scrutiny of his neurological condition, Biden expressed openness to taking an independent neurological examination, and touted the results of his annual physicals.
The event — dubbed a “big boy” press conference by the White House in acknowledgement of its political importance — took place around 7:30 p.m. eastern, 90 minutes later than its originally scheduled start time. It was Biden’s first solo press conference since November of last year, when he took questions after his summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping in California.
Before speaking to reporters, Biden confused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Russian president Vladimir Putin when he introduced Zelenskyy at a NATO event celebrating the alliance’s support for Ukraine, a shocking mistake given the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
“And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin!” Biden said, before realizing what he had done and correcting himself. He downplayed the gaffe when asked about during the press conference.
Up to this point, Biden’s post-debate appearances have not dampened calls for him to step aside, even though Biden insists he will remain the Democratic party’s standard bearer as he shrinks his inner circle to family and a few trusted aides. The president’s son, Hunter Biden, a convicted felon and drug addict, is functionally operating as his father’s top adviser with Joe Biden’s political prospects on the brink.
More than a dozen House Democrats and Senator Peter Welch (D.,Vt.) have called for Biden’s ouster because of his declining mental faculties and the possibility he loses this November. Other lawmakers have suggested the choice is ultimately Biden’s as to whether he continues running for another term.
If Biden is replaced atop the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris would become the immediate frontrunner to succeed him and take on former president Donald Trump. The Biden campaign is reportedly polling to see how Harris would perform as the Democratic nominee, amid the uncertainty surrounding Biden.
“I wouldn’t have picked her unless I thought she was qualified to be president. From the very beginning, I made no bones about that. She is qualified to be president — that’s why I picked her,” Biden said of Harris.
Biden, 81, is the oldest president in American history and appears to have mentally declined significantly over the past few years. Since the debate, a barrage of news reports have come out featuring anecdotes of Biden’s struggles throughout his presidency.
Monday night, NBC is set to air a sit-down interview with Biden and Lester Holt, Biden’s second primetime interview since the debate. ABC News anchor George Stephanapoulos interviewed Biden in primetime last week, and Biden chalked up his debate performance to one bad night.
Ahead of the press conference, the Biden campaign crafted a memo detailing its strategy moving forward, emphasizing the importance of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin for Biden’s reelection effort.
Polls show all three of those rust belt states are virtual toss-ups between Biden and Trump, according to RealClearPolitics polling averages. Sun belt states such as Arizona and Nevada appear increasingly out of reach for the president as Trump gains support among latinos and younger voters.
The Biden campaign’s memo concedes that post-debate polls have not been friendly to the president and represent a setback for the campaign.
Going into Thursday night’s press conference, the best hope for Democrats was that President Biden’s performance offered a definitive enough answer on his mental fitness to bring the brewing civil war within the party to a conclusion one way or another.
A miraculously great night that staved off the rebellion among Democrats was one way to accomplish this, or on the other end of the spectrum, a complete face-plant by Biden that produced the groundswell needed to force him out of the race. The latter would allow Democrats to move on to the process of selecting a replacement as soon as possible.
Instead, Biden delivered a performance that offered something to both his critics and his defenders, ensuring that the debate over his disastrous debate performance, which has already hit two weeks, will drag on.
On the negative side of the measure, Biden was raspy and took a number of long pauses. He referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as Vice President Trump (on the heels of having mixed up Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin), claimed he was taking advice from the commander in chief, referred to a nonexistent broad federal rent-control program, and talked about how he had to do a better job of pacing himself. He mentioned how his staff had given him a list of reporters to call on and jabbed them for adding too many events to his schedule.
At the same time, he did field questions for an hour, in some cases giving long and detailed responses, which, even though riddled with errors (such as claiming Hamas had lost popularity in the West Bank), are something that his defenders can cite as evidence that he is still sharp enough to remain as the nominee.
As I said right after the debate, aging is not a linear process. Elderly people in a state of mental decline can have good moments, bad ones, or just okay ones. Democrats who fear sticking with Biden understand that it’s only a matter of time before Biden has another bad one — but as long as he produces okay ones, it will be hard to replace him as nominee.
Joe Biden loves being president. He’s not going anywhere. He has yearned for the presidency for four decades, and he would have to be dragged out of the Oval Office. What’s more, the Democratic heavy hitters (or “the Lord Almighty”) who would need to confront him about his incapacity are unwilling to do so in public.
If Biden is going to be pushed out, the Democratic knives will have to come out in a way they haven’t before: It will need to be very public, very personal, very soon, and very ugly. Barack Obama would need to lend his credibility to the effort.
Democrats are still stuck with Biden, which means that Joe Biden is still on track to lose decisively to Donald Trump, the luckiest man to ever run for president of the United States.
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