Joe Biden vowed to stay in the US presidential race and defended his fitness for office in a high-stakes press conference on Thursday, but failed to halt more defections from Democratic lawmakers urging him to drop his re-election campaign.
Speaking at the end of the Nato summit in Washington, Biden said he was best qualified to defeat Donald Trump in November and still had time to recover from what he called the “stupid mistake” of his damaging debate performance two weeks ago.
“I beat him once, and I’ll beat him again,” the 81-year-old said of his 78-year-old predecessor and Republican rival. “There’s a long way to go in this campaign, I’m just going to keep moving.”
In a press conference watched across the world for signs of the president’s fitness, Biden showed both his grasp of global affairs, with detailed answers on Ukraine and Israel, as well as the kind of lapses that have triggered calls for his exit from the race — including referring to Kamala Harris as “vice-president Trump”.
Immediately after Biden walked offstage, another senior Democrat in the House — Connecticut’s Jim Himes — called on him to step aside. He was quickly followed by Eric Sorensen from Illinois and Scott Peters of California.
Their entreaties came after a new surge of House Democrats said Biden should withdraw in the hours leading up to his appearance.
As of late on Thursday, 19 House members and one senator from the party have called for the president to step aside.
“One of the really kind of sick aspects of this moment is that we are watching every speech, every rally, every debate and saying, ‘how did he do today?’ And that’s just not the way to think about the presidency of the United States,” Himes told MSNBC after the debate.
Some megadonors who have led calls for Biden to drop out of race were unmoved by the news conference.
“I think he’s done,” said entrepreneur Gideon Stein, adding that his “unscripted appearances instil terror in just about everyone I’ve talked to”.
A top Wall Street investor and Republican voter said Biden’s unscripted press conference was the latest gift to the Trump campaign.
“Trump can keep chilling until November if Biden stays in the race,” said the New York-based investor. “He can’t even remember his VP’s name.”
During the hour-long news conference the president acknowledged concerns about his mental acuity, but insisted any slip-ups were due to overscheduling and workdays that start early and stretch late into the night.
“I’ve just got to pace myself a little more,” he said.
Biden also said he had “taken three significant and intense neurological exams” and “they say I’m in good shape”. He added: “I’m tested every single day on my neurological capacity on the decisions I make.”
But his main message was that he should be judged by his record and accomplishments.
“Can you name me somebody who’s gotten more major pieces of legislation passed in three and a half years,” he said, and noted the strong job creation numbers during his presidency.
As Biden left the stage, predictive traders saw the news conference as a modest success for his re-election campaign. His implied odds of securing his party’s nomination on PredictIt, a political prediction market, rose to 44 per cent, tied with those of Harris.
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Still, rivals seized on his stumbled answers, including remarks before the start of the news conference where he mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin”.
In addition to his mix-up over Harris’s name, Biden — who is commander-in-chief of the US military — said he was “following the advice of my commander-in-chief” on Ukraine policy.
Although Biden’s aides had hoped to tamp down discussions over his fitness for office, the end of the Nato summit appeared to trigger another round of public debate over his candidacy.
Party leaders, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, had urged Democrats to refrain from undermining Biden while so many foreign leaders were in Washington. Just as the summit closed — and before the news conference — Biden faced additional defections from five House Democrats.
The largely unscripted press conference was rare for the president, who has engaged less with journalists than any modern predecessor. His last solo press conference was after meeting China’s President Xi Jinping in November in San Francisco.
Biden acknowledged that he had to “allay” fears about his candidacy among Democrats but said it was not “unusual” for lawmakers to be concerned about the presidential ticket in an election year. He insisted that “no one” was telling him he could not beat Trump.
Polling since the debate on June 27 has mostly shown Trump opening up a wider lead over Biden in most battleground states, adding to anxiety among Democratic lawmakers and donors.
Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s leader in the House, told reporters on Thursday morning that he intended to speak to each of the more than 200 House Democrats before talking with his top team to plot a path forward.
“Throughout this week, as House Democrats, we have engaged in a process of talking to each other. Those conversations have been candid, comprehensive and clear eyed, and they continue,” Jeffries said.
Additional reporting by Alex Rogers and Steff Chávez in Washington and James Fontanella-Khan in New York
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