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With his reelection campaign in doubt, President Joe Biden did something unusual for him on Thursday: He took a barrage of questions from reporters at a news conference.
The news conference at the end of this week’s NATO summit in Washington went well for Biden. He answered questions for about an hour and touched on several foreign policy, economic and political issues. Some of his foreign policy responses were particularly praised as detailed and substantive.
He did at one point refer to “Vice President Trump” when he meant to say “Vice President Harris.” At a previous event, he accidentally introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin.” But those were slips of the tongue and no substantive confusion — Biden spoke extensively about the Ukraine/Russia war and Harris’ credentials.
Biden didn’t perform brilliantly, but he didn’t appear lost or completely distracted, as he did at points in the debate. He performed well.
The question is whether “fine” is enough to stem the tide of Democrats calling for his ouster.
Biden’s news conference came after two very bad days for him — and there could be more bad days to come
Just days ago, Biden appeared to have put his poor debate performance behind him, but a barrage of bad news followed Wednesday and Thursday’s press conferences.
His fundraising activities It is plummeting. His campaign aide told reporters He should resign.. More Democrats Already out Openly opposed his continued candidacy, one of them even Like saying He should resign as president. There are reports that senior party figures — Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Sean Fein, president of the United Auto Workers — Privately, support for Biden is mixed.
Biden’s team Announced The news conference was planned last week as part of the president’s strategy to demonstrate his health by participating in more unscheduled public events. Interviewed by ABC News Last week with MSNBC Good morning, Joe programLast week, the president called two local radio stations. But the radio interviews went awry because Already reported The Biden campaign has drafted questions the moderators will ask, and The campaign had called for Two of Biden’s comments were edited out.
Then, as the NATO press conference approached, word got out that even if it went well, it might not do him much good. Andrew Solender of Axios reports Regardless of how the press conference goes, House Democrats are preparing to release “a slew of new statements urging Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 election.”
Margaret Brennan, CBS News explain Lawmakers are expected to issue “dozens” of such statements in a pre-planned coordinated effort, and sources predict that by next week, Biden will find himself unable to continue as president.
So far, Biden remains indifferent
Biden said at a press conference that he had every confidence that his campaign was going well.
Asked whether he would allow Democratic convention delegates who promised him they would support someone else to do so freely, Biden said the delegates are “free to do whatever they want.” He said it would be a democratic exercise if delegates decided to support someone else at the convention, but “it’s not going to happen.”
Asked what prompted him to end his campaign, he said he would only do so if his advisers told him, “You can’t win.” But he added, “No one said that.”
He insisted that other presidents had fallen further behind on this point than he was, and that he would campaign hard to turn things around.
“We’re just going to keep moving forward,” he said.
Shortly after the press conference, Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT) issued a statement calling President Biden “an outstanding leader.”
Rep. Himes added: “I hope he drops out of the presidential race.”
That meant that, despite the news conference, Thursday ended much as it did at the beginning: a Democratic deadlock between one side skeptical of its candidate and the other determined to continue the campaign.
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