Biden survives ‘big boy’ press conference but ends high-stakes day bruised

President Joe Biden reiterated his intention to remain in the 2024 race during his highly anticipated press conference on the sidelines of the 75th NATO summit, but his nearly hourlong performance failed to stop defections from his party.

Although his strongest moments from the press conference were foreign policy related, it is the questions that linger regarding his political strength domestically against former President Donald Trump before November’s election that had another House Democrat, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), immediately add his voice to the chorus of members of his own party calling on him to step down as their nominee at its conclusion. He was quickly followed by Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Eric Sorensen (D-IL) urging Biden, 81, to end his reelection campaign.

Despite repeating that he would seek reelection, Biden was candid about having to prove himself to Democrats by making more unscripted appearances and taking part in fewer stage-managed events during the White House dubbed “big boy” press conference at the Walter E. Washington Center in downtown Washington, D.C. But he also called on a preapproved list of 11 reporters, who peppered him with questions about his political future to the future of Russia’s war against Ukraine, at times having trouble reading from that list.

Biden’s response to the opening question, a query from Reuters about whether Vice President Kamala Harris could succeed him, was quickly seized on by Trump and his team after the incumbent confused his No. 2 with his Republican opponent.

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if she was not qualified to be president,” Biden told reporters. “There’s a long way to go in this campaign, and I’m going to keep moving.”

The second question mentioned a similar mistake he made earlier in the day when he confused Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the launch of the Ukraine Compact.

Biden underscored that he was running for president again not for his legacy but because he wanted to “complete the job” he embarked on almost four years ago. He then dismissed a question about reports he told Democratic governors last week he would try to end his public schedule by 8 p.m. before downplaying the need to take a cognitive test after seeing his neurologist in February.

“That’s not true; what I said was, instead of my every day starting at 7 and going to bed at midnight, it could be smarter for me to pace myself a little more,” the president said of the report. “By the way, I love my staff, but they add things. They add things all the time. They’re catching hell from my wife.”

“Where’s Trump been? Riding around on his golf cart and filling out his scorecard before he hits his ball?” he added.

Biden criticized Trump, too, during his opening remarks, which he read from a teleprompter, stumbling over “Kyiv” when alluding to Ukraine and clearing his throat multiple times.

“For those who thought NATO’s time had passed, they got a rude awakening with Putin invaded Ukraine,” Biden said, adding Trump “had made it clear he has no commitment to NATO” nor an “obligation to honor Article 5.”

“America cannot retreat from the world,” he continued. “It must lead the world. We are the indispensable nation, as Madeleine Albright wrote.”

Democratic responses to the press conference were tepid, though expectations were lowered by Biden’s debate last month that triggered the power struggle.

Former Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who was among the first to call for Biden to step down, said his performance had moments of coherence and incoherence.

“[Biden] added fuel to the fire with calling Zelensky ‘Putin’ and Harris ‘Trump.’ That will dominate media and be in ads with a billion dollars behind them,” Ryan told the Washington Examiner. “All in all, he made matters much worse, not better. … He gave them a lot more ammunition.”

For onetime Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) staffer Christopher Hahn, Biden “was clearly better at the press conference compared with the debate,” but he did not believe it changed “the minds of those concerned about his ability to wage a campaign and serve another four years.”

Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin added the press conference was “OK” but “certainly not great.”

The press conference became a pressure test for Biden’s leadership after Democrats, including those in Congress, urged the president to prove himself after the Atlanta debate. An interview last week with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, who has since personally expressed doubts about Biden, only exacerbated concerns after the president became defensive and defiant, denying he was behind Trump in the polls and that members of his own party were imploring him to step down. He has another interview booked with NBC’s Lester Holt while he is in Texas on Monday, scheduled to air during the first night of the Republican National Committee, this cycle in Milwaukee.

With at least 17 congressional Democrats now calling for Biden to step down and longtime Biden White House and now campaign advisers Mike Donilon, Steve Donilon, and Jen O’Malley Dillon unable to convince wavering Democrats in the other chamber with a briefing Thursday, the president’s path forward is unclear. Only Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) has encouraged Biden to step down on his side of the Capitol.

Although the sit-down “allayed” some concerns of senators, such as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), it “deepened others,” according to the chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

“I need more of the kind of analytics that show the path to success,” Blumenthal told reporters. “Joe Biden has to go to the American people — not just in one meeting, one press conference, one speech — but consistently and constantly. Tonight will be important. The press conference will be potentially a turning point.”

The Biden campaign had earlier tried to address that specific complaint, circulating a memo that explained Biden’s “clearest” path back to the White House as being through the so-called blue wall of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. But that path has become less clear since the debate, with polls emphasising those states are within the margin of error.

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“In addition to what we believe is a clear pathway ahead for us, there is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump,” O’Malley Dillon, the campaign chairwoman, wrote with campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez on Thursday. “Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter. The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden.”

Biden is expected to travel to Michigan on Friday before heading to Nevada and Texas next week.