THE NEW YORK TIMES
NEWS ANALYSIS
Unscripted and Unbowed, Biden Seeks to Overcome Missteps With Policy Talk
The challenge for President Biden after last month’s debate debacle is that every public appearance between now and November will be scrutinized for evidence of infirmity.
President Biden speaks at a White House podium, with American flags behind him and a NATO background.
President Biden’s performance at a news conference during the NATO summit was steadier than at the debate against former President Donald J. Trump. Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
Peter Baker
By Peter Baker
(Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The Times. He has covered the last five presidents and sometimes writes analytical pieces that place presidents and their administrations in a larger context and historical framework. More about Peter Baker)
Reporting from Washington
Published July 11, 2024
Updated July 12, 2024, 2:39 a.m. ET
Did President Biden really think that Donald J. Trump was his vice president instead of Kamala Harris? Of course not. Did he actually believe that he was meeting with Vladimir V. Putin instead of Volodymyr Zelensky? Not at all.
But when it comes to his political future, did it matter that he mixed up those names in front of television cameras on Thursday? Well, it certainly did not help.
For nearly an hour, at the most anticipated news conference of his presidency, Mr. Biden held forth on the nation, the world and his future. He demonstrated a grasp of the issues and seemed most comfortable during a long discourse on foreign policy. He argued that age gave him wisdom and made clear that he had no intention of dropping out of the race.
The challenge, however, is that every momentary flub, every verbal miscue, even if quickly corrected, now takes on outsize importance, ricocheting across the internet in viral video clips, some more distorted than others, that may reinforce doubts about his capacity. He gets no free passes anymore, not since last month’s debate. The reality is that every public appearance between now and November will be scrutinized for evidence of infirmity.
Taken as a whole, Mr. Biden’s performance at the news conference was certainly steadier than at the debate against Mr. Trump. There were some word salad comments that were hard to deconstruct. His voice, strong at first, grew a little weaker as he went along. But he had some forceful moments, got his points across and offered serious answers about NATO, Ukraine, Gaza, China and other major topics. He seemed almost delighted to talk about industrial policy rather than his cognitive state.
Some nervous Democrats watching expressed relief and suggested that a good-enough evening would enable Mr. Biden to fight another day. Others remained unpersuaded and predicted it would not change the overall situation. Within minutes of the end of the event, at least three more House Democrats called on Mr. Biden to step aside as a candidate, and everyone was waiting to see what Democratic leaders do on Friday.
What many Americans who did not watch live may hear about the event from social media, though, may be the embarrassing gaffes. The very first question was whether Mr. Biden had any concerns about Ms. Harris’s ability to beat Mr. Trump if she were to be the Democratic nominee instead.
“Look,” he said, “I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, did I think she was not qualified to be president.”
Sitting in the audience, Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, stroked his chin, while Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin stared ahead as stoically as possible.
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That came less than two hours after the president met with Mr. Zelensky. “Now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination,” Mr. Biden said. “Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin.”
Mr. Biden began to step away from the lectern when he realized his mistake and returned to the microphone. “President Putin!” he said. “We’re going to beat President Putin. President Zelensky. I’m so focused on beating Putin.”
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Mr. Zelensky made light of it. “I’m better,” he joked.
“You are a hell of a lot better,” Mr. Biden agreed.
Such slips can happen to anyone at any age and do not necessarily indicate that someone is unable to process information or make decisions. And Mr. Biden, 81, is hardly the only one in this campaign to mix up names and facts. Mr. Trump, 78, who regularly mangles his sentences, in recent months alone has confused Mr. Biden with Barack Obama, Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, and the leader of Hungary with the leader of Turkey.
Until two weeks ago, Mr. Biden might have gotten the benefit of the doubt. But ever since, the microscope has been turned up high. For Democrats, it has become an exercise in waiting to see if disaster strikes again. And the dilemma is that even if Mr. Biden has a string of mistake-free events, many Democrats fear that it is unlikely he can go for nearly four months without episodes that will remind voters about the debate.
“We can’t have a situation where every day we are holding our breath, whether it’s a press conference, a debate or a rally,” Representative Brad Schneider of Illinois, a Democrat who called on the president earlier in the day to exit the race, said on CNN.
Mr. Biden’s news conference was only the fourth full-scale solo session of his presidency with reporters in Washington, and he chose the backdrop of a NATO summit to emphasize his global leadership after meeting with foreign counterparts who respect him and dread Mr. Trump.
The president appeared determined to demonstrate stamina by taking questions for an hour, although he mangled some words. When he found himself unable to finish a thought, he turned to a favorite transition word, “anyway” to move on, a verbal tactic he used about 10 times. He grew most passionate talking about gun control and abortion rights, managing to marry the two issues into the most campaign-friendly phrase of the evening. “Control guns, not girls,” he said.
Mr. Biden hoped to use the event to move beyond what he called “that stupid mistake” of the debate, which he has attributed to being sick and tired after traveling before the debate. He did not pretend he is younger than he is, reminding reporters, as he does so often, that he knew Golda Meir, an Israeli prime minister from the 1970s. “That’s how far back I go,” he said.
He acknowledged that age has taken at least a little toll, suggesting that he should finish evening fund-raisers earlier. He chided his staff for adding too many events to his calendar, a comment at odds with the view that his staff has tried to protect him by not scheduling too much.
“I just got to, just, pace myself a little more,” Mr. Biden said. “Pace myself. The next debate, I’m not going to be traveling 15 time zones a week before.”
Still, he argued that age, or at least experience, has made him a better president. “What I realized was, my long time in the Senate had equipped me to have the wisdom and know how to deal with the Congress, to get things done,” he said, citing the raft of progressive legislation he passed on infrastructure, climate change, health care and other issues.
He again vowed to resist pressure from fellow Democrats to step aside for Ms. Harris even if his campaign staff, which is polling on the vice president’s prospects, showed him data that she could beat Mr. Trump. “No,” he said, “unless they came back and said, there’s no way you can win.”
He then dropped to a trademark whisper he uses for oratorical emphasis. “No one’s saying that. No poll says that.”
But as he was finishing and stepping away, a reporter called out to tell him that Mr. Trump was already online mocking Mr. Biden for confusing his name with Ms. Harris’s. “How do you combat that criticism from tonight?”
Mr. Biden tried to turn the tables on Mr. Trump, suggesting that the former president makes his own verbal blunders. “Listen to him,” he said. At the very least, everyone will be listening to Mr. Biden.
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Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The Times. He has covered the last five presidents and sometimes writes analytical pieces that place presidents and their administrations in a larger context and historical framework. More about Peter Baker
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