Joe Biden Meets the Press, Fails to Quiet Worries

Ignoring mounting calls from political allies, President Joe Biden doubled-down on his plans to run for re-election Thursday evening, telling reporters he is not worried about his legacy but rather is committed to finishing the job he started. “We’ve got more to do. We’ve got to finish the job,” Biden said during a rare solo press conference.

The moment of defiance comes as Democrats are overwhelmingly despondent about his candidacy. A disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27 sparked plenty of second guesses about their presumptive candidate’s odds to hold the White House. Ignoring the handful of Democrats who have publicly urged Biden to step aside, Biden said he has what it takes to continue the job for a second term.

“My schedule has been full bore,” Biden told reporters after a high-stakes summit of NATO members and allies. “I always have an inclination, when I was playing sports or doing politics, just to keep going. I’ve got to pace myself.”

As he has in the past, he blamed aides for his own stumbles. “I love my staff, but they add things. They add things all the time. I’m catching hell from my wife. Anyway,” he said, trailing off yet again.

Biden insisted that he could still win in November and that none of his aides had told him his bid was doomed to fail. Asked if he would drop out of the race if his staff showed him polling that Vice President Kamala Harris could defeat Trump, Biden said “no,” that wouldn’t be enough. “Unless they came back and said there’s no way you can win. No one’s saying that. No poll says that,” he said.

Biden’s showing was at times halting, often stopping to clear his throat and speaking through a hoarse voice. He opened with a strong affirmation of U.S. commitment to NATO and boasted about a new economic report that showed a strengthening domestic economy. He criticized Trump’s veto-from-afar of a bipartisan border security deal and reminded those listening of his efforts to bring an end to the war in Gaza.

But it was clear he understood the stakes and was on a tight leash. “I’ve been given a list of people to call on here,” Biden said. 

Answering his first question, Biden messed up the name of his own understudy, as he tried to speak on Harris’ ability to swap onto the ticket as a replacement.

“I would not have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President if I didn’t think she was qualified to be President.” The gaffe came just hours after Biden drew gasps from the room of diplomats for mistakenly calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by the name of his foe who invaded the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The flubs came amid a gobsmacking two weeks of half-starts and false-resets following the debate in Atlanta. Donors benched themselves, aides consoled one another, and prominent backers like actor George Clooney and lawyer-bundler John Morgan urged Biden to rethink his next steps. Democrats on Capitol Hill weighed whether to be circumspect or conspiratorial in trying to get Biden to step aside. And some of Biden’s insular inner circle were quietly wondering how he might stage his own exit in a way that preserves his legacy and demonstrates grace.

While there is a near-universal agreement that the candidate who took the stage in Atlanta is unlikely to win against Trump, there is less comity in the position that anyone else can fare better.

The overwhelming sense inside party circles is that Thursday's presser was less a make-or-break moment and more of a sideshow. Biden’s slow-motion meltdown has left Democrats worried about their odds of keeping control of the Senate and claiming a majority in the House. While the polls so far have shown scant changes in head-to-head surveys, Democrats on the Hill have started lashing out at Biden’s inner circle for hiding the President’s perceived decline.

Biden’s performance Thursday evening—starting late as aides milled around—was unlikely to change that dynamic. The verbal gaffes and stammering that have been part of his identity for a half century were on full display. But those fumbles will only add to unease among Democrats and provide fodder for ridicule from Republicans. Biden's embarrassing sound bites are likely to be seen more widely than the cogent, detailed responses he delivered on the importance of American global leadership, what he’s doing to counter China’s support for Russia’s war machine, or how he’s structured a deal intended to bring the war in Gaza to an end.

At one point, answering questions about the weapons pipeline to Ukraine, he had another stumble. “I’m following the advice of my commander in chief, my—the chief of staff of the military,” Biden said, appearing to say he deferred to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, his principle military adviser. A minor hiccup, sure, but at a moment when the public is allowing him no margin of error.

As Biden wrapped up the 58-minute press conference, NBC News’s Peter Alexander stood up and told him that Trump was mocking his age and memory for calling Harris, “Vice President Trump” earlier in the evening. Asked how he combats that criticism from Trump, Biden stopped and suggested voters should pay attention to how Trump himself speaks. “Listen to him,” Biden said.