President Joe Biden managed to ease some concerns about his political future, though he also committed crucial gaffes, during a choreographed press conference Thursday night.
For weeks, Democrats have been calling for the president to drop out of the presidential race. Two weeks after taking the debate stage against former President Donald Trump, Biden took questions at a high-stakes press conference while his political future remained in limbo. Despite a few gaffes that made the rounds on social media, the president managed a strong enough showing through the rest of the press conference to potentially delay calls for him to step down. (RELATED: Briefing Erupts After Multiple Reporters Bombard KJP With Questions About Neurologist Visiting White House)
“Biden had a good enough night that Ds will not go into a full, public meltdown — at least not tonight. He bought himself more time, which probably is upsetting to a lot of Ds who think he is the weakest candidate vs. Trump and want to get this over. The Ds are in a real jam,” former Bush administration White House press secretary Ari Fleischer wrote in a tweet.
Biden had a good enough night that Ds will not go into a full, public meltdown- at least not tonight.
He bought himself more time, which probably is upsetting to a lot of Ds who think he is the weakest candidate vs. Trump and want to get this over.
The Ds are in a real jam.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) July 12, 2024
In a nearly hour-long press conference that was already significantly delayed, Biden committed several gaffes while trying to prove to the press and his allies that he is capable of a second term.
The first gaffe came before Biden even walked out on the stage for his press conference at remarks about two hours earlier. When introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Biden mistakenly called him “President Putin.” Biden paused before catching his mistake and correcting himself.
BREAKING: President Joe Biden refers to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” during the NATO summit.
Holy sh*t.
“And now I wanna hand it over to the President of Ukraine who has as much courage as he has. Determination, ladies and gentlemen, President… pic.twitter.com/6ug5qh2nF8
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 11, 2024
Biden took the press conference stage just before 7:30 for a press conference that was initially set to begin at 5:30 p.m., before initially being delayed to 6:30 p.m. After giving an opening statement off a teleprompter, Biden told reporters that he had a list of who he was supposed to call on. In total, the president called on eight reporters, all from the list, before taking a shouted question as he exited the stage.
Here’s the list of reporters who Biden called on tonight. pic.twitter.com/cIhbGifTNv
— James Lynch (@jameslynch32) July 12, 2024
Moments after taking his first question, Biden confused Vice President Kamala Harris with Trump.
“Mr. President, your political future has hung over the NATO summit a little bit this week, Speaker Pelosi made a point of suggesting that your decision on whether to stay in the race was still open. George Clooney and a handful a handful of makers have called on you to step aside. Reuters is reporting tonight that UAW leadership is concerned about your ability to win,” a reporter began.
“My question for you is, how are you incorporating these developments into your decision to stay and separately, what concerns do you have about Vice President Harris’s ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?” the reporter asked.
“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, did I think she was not qualified to be president. So let’s start there,” Biden began.
Later in the press conference, Biden called his chief-of-staff of the military his “commander-in-chief” when talking about the Russia-Ukraine war.
“The question is, what’s the best use of the weaponry he has what we were getting to him?” Biden began. “I’ve gotten, more high, I got a more long range capacity as well as defensive capacity. And so our military is where, I’m following the advice of my commander in chief, my, my, my, the Chief of Staff of the military, as well as the secretary of defense and our intelligence people, and we’re making a day to day basis on what they should and should, how far they should win. That’s a logical thing to do.”
Biden exceeded expectations. His fake Hollywood friends are in shambles.
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) July 12, 2024
Amid the gaffes, Biden managed to address concerns that cannot manage late events or a demanding presidential schedule — something Democrats have voiced worry over when calling for the president to drop out of the race.
“I’m determined on running, but I think it’s important that I lay fears by seeing let them see me out there, let me see them. You know, for the longest time it was, you know, Biden’s not prepared to sit with us, unscripted. Biden’s not prepared to in any way. And so what I’m doing is, 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 you think we can win, where we can persuade people to move our way, or people already there,” the president said, directly attacking criticisms that he can’t talk without a teleprompter.
Probably worst case scenario for Dems: Did well enough to invigorate Blue MAGA and bad enough for viral clips of “Vice President Trump” and “Putin” to circulate amongst normie voters all weekend
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) July 12, 2024
Unlike Biden’s debate performance, or even his primetime interview on ABC News, the president’s public appearance did not seem to set off panic within his party or amongst his allies. Rather, the president appeared to just meet already low expectations in his high-profile press conference.
Some conservatives applauded the performance for being just good enough to keep a weak Biden in the race, while others pointed out that it was still below the bar for a president seeking another term. “Probably worse case scenario for Dems,” former Daily Caller White House Correspondent Saagar Enjeti tweeted.
“Worst possible outcome,” a Democratic source told Fox News Senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.