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President Joe Biden, his reelection bid imperiled by his own party, defiantly declared Thursday in a press conference-turned-referendum on his candidacy that he is still the “best person” to defeat Donald Trump.
In his first solo news conference since November — and with Washington on edge — the 81-year-old Biden forcefully dismissed multiple questions about fellow Democrats declaring that he was no longer up for the rigors of the campaign and should abandon his reelection bid.
“If I slow down and can’t get the job done, that’s a sign I shouldn’t be doing it,” he said, “but there’s no indication of that yet, none.”
“I’m just going to keep moving,” added Biden, saying it’s “not unusual” for lawmakers to worry about the top of the ticket, but there’s “a long way to go in the campaign.”
Yet the press conference served as a reminder that the scrutiny Biden is facing from all corners over his ability to continue on is likely to be unending. And in a slip-up symbolic of what fellow Democrats worry about, he accidentally misidentified his vice president in the opening minutes of the press conference.
“I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president,” he said.
The tense prime-time press conference — in which Biden repeatedly coughed or cleared his throat — captured the precariousness of Biden’s presidency: An event originally envisioned as an opportunity to display his commanding presence in global affairs quickly became consumed with basic practical questions about Biden’s capacity to do the job with physical and intellectual vigor.
The appearance capped a day of intensifying friction between the White House and the rest of the Democratic Party, as more members of Congress urged Biden to drop his reelection campaign and a pair of top Biden advisers met a cold reception from senators in a lunchtime political briefing. And it’s uncertain whether anything Biden could have done Thursday night would stop the bleeding on Capitol Hill, where the trickle of Democrats opposed to Biden’s bid grew even in the moments after the press conference. Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Biden should step aside.
Biden’s faltering, disastrous performance at the debate in Atlanta two weeks ago completely upended his reelection bid and changed the course of his campaign against former President Donald Trump. Long-held but quiet fears about Biden’s age and ability to do the job burst into public view and have overwhelmed his candidacy, and several elected Democrats positioned the night as pivotal in whether they will continue to support Biden’s candidacy.
The broadcast and cable networks carried the news conference live, a rarity for this president and a reflection of the moment’s importance. Some in Biden’s inner circle believed the night might be his last, best chance to steady Democratic nerves and staunch the bleeding of support.
What those Democrats saw was a defiant Biden, far more confident and cogent than at the debate that rattled the political landscape. He pushed back on assertions that the United States’ standing at the NATO summit was weakened by questions about his ability to lead even as he acknowledged some adjustments were needed to his schedule.
“I need to pace myself,” said Biden. “What I said was instead of my every day starting at 7 and going to bed at midnight, it’d be smarter for me to pace myself a little more.”
It was a moment unlike many in modern American political history: a sitting president defending his own mental and physical abilities while trying to stave off a mutiny from the party he has served for decades. It was not clear if his performance — clearly better than in Atlanta opposite Trump — would quell the growing calls for him to step aside as his campaign faces a series of existential threats, including faltering fundraising and sinking poll numbers.
And he dismissed talk of stepping aside for Vice President Kamala Harris “unless they came back and said, ‘there’s no way you can win.’ No one’s saying that.”
“I’m not in this for my legacy,” Biden said. “I’m in this to complete the job I started.”
Just an hour before his scheduled press conference, Biden delivered the sort of gaffe he was looking to avoid, introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” at an event celebrating new commitments aimed at helping Ukraine fend off Russian forces. He quickly corrected himself.
During the press conference, his voice was at times raspy, perhaps exacerbated by NATO grueling summit schedule. Taking advantage of the large audience, he opened with a campaign-style recitation of accomplishments — including lowering inflation and progress at the southern border.
The president then took 17 questions from 10 reporters who he called on from a list, fielding questions for roughly an hour. Before walking off stage, he stopped and took one more question as reporters shouted, trying to get the president to call on them.
At times, he launched into expansive explanations on foreign policy points like defending Ukraine and competing with China. Other times, he smirked his displeasure at the repeated inquiries about the topic that has consumed the political world for two weeks: his mental and physical health.
The president has repeatedly insisted he is staying in the race. But that has not stopped more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers from calling for Biden to stand aside, with at least a half-dozen more preparing to do the same in the wake of the news conference.
Over the furious weeks that followed the debate, Biden and his advisers have tried to reassure nervous Democrats that the debate was simply one bad night and not a referendum on the president’s ability to run for reelection. Shifting explanations were offered for his poor performance — he had a cold, he was over-prepared, he was tired from travel — but the excuses and finger-pointing only seemed to ramp up the anxiety among Democrats.
Biden was then dispatched for a series of public events meant to prove his acuity and stamina. He delivered a stronger showing at a rally in North Carolina the day after the debate but an interview with George Stephanopoulos — a rare televised sit-down for Biden — was viewed by most as merely adequate and calmed few nerves.
Biden’s insistence that he was continuing his campaign has revealed clear fault lines within his party, with some Democrats rallying around the presumptive nominee while others began to step forward and urge his resignation.
This week began with another public show of force — including a letter to House Democrats about his intention to run — and Biden’s team believed a few days later that it may have been through the worst. But they were not. A series of events Wednesday — including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sidestepping a question about Biden’s candidacy and actor George Clooney calling on the president to abandon his run just weeks after he held a major fundraiser for him — revived momentum among despairing Democrats to find a new top of the ticket.
That only ratcheted up the pressure on Biden to deliver strong showings in both the news conference and another nationally televised interview set for Monday with NBC’s Lester Holt.
