Biden has stumbles in news conference but shows strength on foreign policy

WASHINGTON – During a nearly hourlong news conference Thursday, President Joe Biden delivered a series of sometimes shaky answers but also demonstrated a command of foreign policy and avoided a repeat of the worst moments of his debate performance that prompted calls for him to abandon his re-election campaign.

After initially reading from a teleprompter and repeating his vow to stay in the race, Biden tried to hit back at questions about his age and fitness for office. At one point, he fumbled a question about Vice President Kamala Harris by saying that he “wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president” if he did not have confidence in her.

Before the news conference even started, Biden had introduced President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine as “President Putin” at a NATO summit in Washington before quickly correcting himself.

The solo news conference, his first in eight months, was designed to demonstrate that Biden remains capable of the nimbleness and stamina required to continue his campaign against former President Donald Trump. In the end, it appeared to do little to change the discussion roiling the country and his party, with some allies leaping to his defense and others calling for him to step aside for someone else.

The president took questions from 11 reporters as he faced enormous pressure; even some of his longtime advisers and allies are said to be considering ways to persuade him to end his candidacy. In the two weeks since his disastrous debate performance, 18 Democratic lawmakers have called on him to drop his bid for re-election.

On Thursday night, just minutes after the news conference ended, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, called on the president to end his campaign. Reps. Eric Sorensen of Illinois and Scott Peters of California followed suit.

And Trump quickly mocked the president on social media, saying that “Crooked Joe begins his ‘Big Boy’ Press Conference with, ‘I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president,’” adding, “Great job, Joe!”

Biden posted in response: “By the way: Yes, I know the difference. One’s a prosecutor, and the other’s a felon.”

Some of the president’s allies reacted with relief to his performance at the news conference, noting his lengthy and substantive answers to questions about China and the conflict in the Gaza Strip. Some said the answers showed that Biden had the kind of command of facts that seemed to elude him during the debate two weeks earlier.

“China has to understand that if they are supplying Russia with information and capacity, along with working with North Korea and others to help Russia, and armament, that they’re not going to benefit economically as a consequence of that,” he told reporters.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., one of Biden’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, praised what he called the president’s “mastery of foreign policy” during the news conference.

“Honestly, could the other guy have done any of that?” Coons said. “Anyone concerned about his ability to lead and govern should be reassured.”

At the same time, the president largely failed to use the appearance to make a forceful and compelling case for his presidency, or to prosecute the case against Trump, something that many of his allies had desperately hoped to see.

He rambled through several of his answers, sometimes seeming to halt again and again.

“I’m determined on running,” he said. “But I think it’s important that I real – I allay fears. I’ve seen, let them see me out there, let me see them out – you know, for the longest time it was, you know, Biden’s not prepared to sit with us unscripted. Biden’s not prepared to – and anyway.”

He continued: “And so what I’m doing is when I’ve been doing, I think we’ve done over 20 major events from Wisconsin to North Carolina to – anyway – to demonstrate that I’m going out in the areas where we think we can win. “

Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., who earlier Thursday called on Biden to exit the race, said during an interview on CNN that Biden had a strong handle on policy issues during the news conference. But he said that the circumstance right now for Democrats writ large was untenable.

“We can’t have a situation where every day we are holding our breath,” Schneider said, “whether it’s a press conference, a debate or a rally.”

Most of the questions from reporters were about Democratic calls for him to step aside, which the president again rejected, insisting that “I think I’m the best qualified person to do the job.” But for the first time since the debate, he conceded that polls showed that he was not the only person who might beat Trump in November.

“There are other people who could beat Trump, too,” he said, stumbling over his words as he said it would be hard for someone else to start a campaign from scratch.

Biden said again that his doctors had not told him they saw any need for another neurological exam. He said he had been examined three times by neurologists during annual physical exams, and each time was told by doctors that they found no problems.

“If a neurologist tells me that he thinks I need another exam,” he said, he will do it. “But no one is suggesting that to me now. And I’ll ask another question: No matter what I did, no one’s going to be satisfied.”

Just the fact that Biden agreed to hold the event spoke to the pressure he is facing to prove his contention that the debate was an anomaly. At this point in his term, Biden has held fewer news conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan. His last solo news conference was eight months ago.

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In recent days, he has tried to assure shaken allies that he wants to do more unscripted appearances and interviews, but beyond an interview with ABC on Friday, he has done little of those in the 14 crucial days since the debate until the news conference Thursday night.

Biden has also scheduled an interview Monday with NBC News anchor Lester Holt. The interview, which will be taped in Texas, is set to air on the network in prime time that evening and last no less than 15 minutes.

During Thursday’s news conference, Biden was asked whether he was had spent time thinking about what it would mean for his legacy if he stayed in the race and lost to Trump, someone he has argued is an existential threat to the nation.

“I’m not in this for my legacy,” he said. “I’m in this to complete the job I started.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.