WASHINGTON — President Biden began his highly anticipated news conference at the NATO summit on Thursday with a clear voice and, aided by a teleprompter, his eight-minute opening remarks were delivered with few verbal stumbles.
But with the first question came the type of mental slip he can’t afford with so many concerns about his mental acuity since his debate debacle.
Asked about his political future and whether he had any concerns about Vice President Kamala Harris taking on Donald Trump if Biden was not the Democratic nominee, he immediately stumbled.
“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, [if I thought] she’s not qualified to be president. So let’s start there, number one,” Biden said, eliciting a couple of gasps from the 150 reporters in the room.
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But unlike in the June 27 debate, the gaffe didn’t lead to a disastrous performance. He quickly found his footing. And over the course of 58 minutes, he asserted he is the Democrats’ best choice to defeat Trump and reiterated he would not drop out of the race.
“I believe I’m the best qualified to govern and I think I’m the best qualified to win,” he said, noting that even though there may be other Democrats who could defeat Trump, they would “start from scratch.”
Biden fielded several questions about the fate of his legacy, his age, his health, and his stamina, including whether he needed to be in bed by early evening as some reports have detailed.
“That’s not true. Look, what I said was, instead of my every day starting at seven and going to bed at midnight, it’d be smarter for me to pace myself a little more,” the 81-year-old Biden said, giving the example that fund-raisers should be held earlier.
“If you look to my schedule since I made that stupid mistake of, in the campaign . . . in the debate, I mean, my schedule has been full bore,” he said, before turning the criticism on his Republican rival. “Where’s Trump been? Riding on his golf cart, filling out a scorecard before he hits the ball? I mean, look, he’s done virtually nothing.”
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Biden answered questions about NATO, Ukraine, China, and Gaza, displaying his deep expertise on those issues while also dismissing Trump’s.
“Foreign policy’s never been his strong point,” Biden said.
Biden gave long, detailed answers to those questions, at times seeming like he might be filibustering as he did during his years in the Senate to avoid campaign-related queries. And asked if Europe would be left on its own if Trump won the election, Biden referred to fears he heard from allies at the summit.
“How can I say this without sounding too self-serving. I’m not having any of my European allies come up to me and say, ‘Joe, don’t run.’ What I hear them saying is, ‘You’ve got to win,’ " he said. “It would be a disaster” if Trump wins.
For this significant moment, Biden had home field advantage.
The news conference took place just blocks from the White House, at the site of this year’s NATO summit and, most importantly, the focus — foreign policy — has been Biden’s sweet spot for decades.
After his disastrous debate performance against Trump, anxious Democrats were looking to Biden’s first solo news conference this year for proof he has the mental acuity to answer reporters’ questions cogently and make a forceful contrast with Trump without the aid of a teleprompter.
He didn’t need to hit a home run to help quash calls for him to drop his candidacy. But given the pressure from congressional Democrats, Biden needed to deliver a solid performance free of any significant gaffes or lost trains of thought. For the most part Thursday, he did.
The press conference came after a day of meetings for Biden as the summit concluded. Shortly before he took reporters’ questions, Biden appeared with more than 20 other leaders of NATO countries and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce a security pledge for the war-torn nation as it continues to fight the invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Speaking from a teleprompter, Biden praised the “Ukrainian Compact” and Zelensky before stumbling in his introduction and calling him “President Putin.” Biden quickly caught himself amid the applause.
“President Putin? He’s going to beat President Putin. President Zelensky,” Biden said. “I’m so focused on beating Putin, we’ve got to worry about it.” Zelensky took it in stride.
“I’m better,” he told Biden as they shook hands and some in the audience laughed. “You are a hell of a lot better,” Biden responded.
It was the type of gaffe Biden has been known for throughout his long career. But with the intensive focus on his performance after the debate, it was more fodder for his critics. Within minutes, the Republican National Committee posted the video on X.
Biden’s recent campaign events in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — some using a teleprompter — haven’t reassured Democrats that the debate was simply, as the president called it, “a bad night” brought on by a cold. An interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos similarly failed to quell the concern of congressional allies.
“I think every time the president is out speaking directly to voters, the more chance he has to settle the issues that were raised during the debate,” Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters this week. “So I think voters were legitimate to ask questions, and I think the press conference and other events like that will be helpful in getting us back to the contrast between Biden and Trump that we need and the country deserves.”
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Even as Biden has adamantly said he would not drop out of the race, the small number of congressional Democrats who are publicly calling for him to do that has continued to increase this week. It surpassed a dozen with a few more announcements Thursday.
Amid the rising concerns, three top Biden aides trekked to Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet privately with Senate Democrats. Some Democratic lawmakers who are still mulling their position on Biden said he needed to do more to show he was up to the rigors of the campaign. They saw the NATO summit press conference as a crucial stress test for him.
“Obviously he’s looking at it as an opportunity to get out there and demonstrate that he is capable, so let’s see how he does,” Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado said Wednesday.
Biden has held fewer solo press conferences than his recent predecessors, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California Santa Barbara. Thursday’s event was Biden’s 15th, compared with 44 by Trump in his four years in office and 30 during Barack Obama’s first term in office. Three times this year Biden has been at press conferences alongside foreign leaders, but White House aides referred to Thursday’s solo event as a “big boy” press conference.
Some Democrats were hesitant to speak out about Biden during the strategically important NATO summit conference as the alliance is grappling with the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“I think it’s really important‚ and I hope everyone would join in, to let him deal with this NATO conference,” Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former House speaker, told MSNBC on Wednesday, adding it was up to Biden to decide whether to drop out of the race. “I said to everyone, ‘Let’s just hold off whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.’ "
Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @JimPuzzanghera. Jackie Kucinich can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @JFKucinich and on Instagram at @JackieKucinich.