Biden’s second opportunity to restore faith in his candidacy has come and gone. The performance in his press conference at the NATO summit – defiant and assured at times, plagued by gaffes and lapses at others – was a far cry from what the President desperately needed as his candidacy faces unprecedented challenges.
The long overdue press conference was a Biden first since November of 2023. In the hour long presser, which started an hour late, the President gave a defiant opening speech defending his foreign policy approach before fielding questions from seven reporters.
There was a glimpse of Biden’s old self in his opening statements. For a moment, he appeared as a decisive and formidable statesman, presidential, even. To conclude his brief speech, Biden gave a declaration of allegiance to NATO, stating, “our leadership matters, our partnerships matter, this moment matters, we must rise to meet it”.
A complete, compelling pronouncement without pause, coughs, or stutters. A low threshold to beat but a triumph for the embattled President nonetheless.
However, his words of resilience were immediately overshadowed when attempting to address a question on the possibility of Kamala Harris running in his stead. Confusing Harris for Trump, Biden retorted, “Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice-President Trump to be vice-president if she was not qualified to be president. So start there”.
The moment was quickly clipped and shared millions of times, another addition to the long collection of embarrassing blunders from the commander in chief. The gaffe was accompanied by one earlier in the evening in which he proudly introduced the President of Ukraine, Zelenskyy, as “President Putin”.
These moments unwind any other small victories of the press conference, as the vast majority of Americans will not watch Biden’s full presser but will come across Biden’s two excruciating blunders on their social feeds.
Later in the press conference, Biden, after insisting he will not turn over the reins to Harris, was pressed again on the topic:
If your team came back and showed you data that she (Kamala) would fair better than Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?
Biden retorted, partially in a gasping whisper, “No, unless they came back and said there was no way you could win. No one is saying that”. In a very Trumpian fashion, the President once again denied the polls. Currently, Biden faces catastrophically low approval ratings – which no incumbents have overcome in the past – and deficits across the swing states. His chances of victory in November look extremely slim.
Recent polling shows that even New York, a state won decisively by Democrats in every modern election, is now at play.
Democrats are worried. Robert Reich, who served the Carter and Clinton administrations, holds to the belief that Harris still has an opportunity to replace Biden. “The only question worth discussing is whether Biden or Harris is the best candidate the Democrats have to beat Trump,” he wrote after the press conference.
For that to occur, however, the Democrats must overcome Biden’s formidable ego. Biden explained his insistence on remaining in the top spot saying, “I’ve always had the inclination, whether I was playing sports or doing politics, to keep going, to not stop, I just need to pace myself a little more”.
The statement echoes the vanity of his messy NBC interview earlier this week in which he claimed a loss to Trump would be acceptable as he had done his “goodest” job to win.
The presser did assuage some of the top democrats’ concerns about the President’s capabilities, preventing a cascade of further democratic retreat. Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain celebrated the President’s “strong performance”.
Other top democrats were not convinced by the President. Democratic House Representative Jim Himes withdrew support for Biden’s run immediately following the presser stating,
“Joe Biden’s record of public service is unrivaled. His accomplishments are immense. His legacy as a great president is secure. He must not risk that legacy, those accomplishments and American democracy to soldier on in the face of the horrors promised by Donald Trump.”
The race, which the Biden team is desperately attempting to pivot to a referendum on Trump, is increasingly becoming a referendum on Biden’s age instead. A press conference with mixed results has done little to alleviate the crisis of the Democratic ticket, which will only become more contested as Biden flounders in further public appearances.
Write to us with your comments to be considered for publication at letters@reaction.life
