After gaffes on Harris and Zelensky, Biden faces more pressure from Dems to quit race
US president refers to his ‘Vice President Trump’ at news conference, introduces Ukraine leader as ‘President Putin’ at NATO summit; 17 congressional Democrats want him to end re-election bid
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — President Joe Biden faced more calls from fellow Democrats to abandon his re-election bid on Friday, following a news conference in which he delivered nuanced responses but occasionally stumbled over his words.
Answering the first question at the high-stakes presser, he referred to his vice president, Kamala Harris, as “Vice President Trump”.
“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president [if I didn’t] think she was not qualified to be president,” Biden said.
The real Donald Trump immediately mocked Biden for the mistake on social media.
That gaffe came just hours after Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” at the NATO summit, drawing gasps from those in the room.
“And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said, referring to Zelensky.
“Going to beat President Putin, President Zelensky. I am so focused on beating Putin,” Biden said while correcting himself to the sound of gasps.
Zelensky responded to Biden’s comments by saying, “I am better (than Putin).”
Biden replied: “You are a hell of a lot better,” as some in the room laughed, before Zelensky began his own address.
The verbal slip-ups came as Biden, 81, attempts to reassure voters — and, more urgently, his fellow Democrats — that he is not only able to defeat Trump in November’s presidential election, but fit to lead the free world for four years after that.
It was unclear whether Biden’s performance would convince doubters in his party that he is their best bet.
Won’t step aside
At least 17 congressional Democrats so far have called for him to drop out and allow the party to pick another standard-bearer, including some who announced their positions after the news conference on Thursday night.
Democrats are worried that Biden’s low public approval ratings and growing concerns that he is too old for the job could cause them to lose seats in the House and Senate, leaving them with no grip on power in Washington should Trump win the White House.
But Biden made clear that he did not plan to step aside.
“If I show up at the convention and everybody says they want someone else, that’s the democratic process,” Biden said at the news conference, before shifting to the stage whisper he often uses for emphasis to add, “It’s not gonna happen.”
“If I slow down and can’t get the job done, that’s a sign I shouldn’t be doing this,” he also said. “But there’s no indication of that. None.”
Biden perhaps did not reassure those who were spooked by his poor presidential debate performance against Trump on June 27.
Throughout the press conference — his first in months, having delivered fewer than any of his recent predecessors — the president coughed frequently and occasionally garbled his responses.
But he also delivered detailed assessments of global issues, including Ukraine’s war with Russia and the Israel-Gaza conflict, that served as a reminder of his decades of experience on the world stage.
Fading belief
Some Democrats were not reassured.
“We must put forward the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump’s promised MAGA authoritarianism. I no longer believe that is Joe Biden,” said Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, who called on the president to end his campaign after the news conference.
Democratic Reps. Scott Peters (Calif.) and Eric Sorensen (Ill.) also said Biden should step aside minutes after he his roughly hour-long press conference. They join 13 other House Democrats and one Senate Democrat, Peter Welch (Vt.), who have urged the president to step aside.
A senior campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity described the president’s performance as the “worst of all worlds. Not good. But not bad enough to make him change his mind … It’ll give some enough cover to back him publicly, only to say he’s not up for it privately.”
Fundraiser Dmitri Melhorn said other donors told him they saw a strong performance from the president. “This is the person who can beat Trump. The mistakes are baked in and the upside is strong,” he told Reuters.
Biden will hold a rally on Friday in Detroit, where his campaign says he will focus on the “dangers” of Trump’s agenda.
The Michigan city is also headquarters of the United Auto Workers labor union, whose leaders endorsed Biden but now are assessing their options, three sources told Reuters.
With most US voters firmly divided into ideological camps, opinion polls show the race remains close.
An NPR/PBS poll released on Friday found Biden leading Trump 50% to 48%, a slight increase from his position before the debate. Biden fared slightly worse than Trump when third-party candidates were included in the questioning.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week found Biden and Trump tied at 40% each. But some nonpartisan analysts have warned that Biden is losing ground in the handful of competitive states that will determine the outcome of the election.
Ratings claim
Biden joked, inaccurately, at the news conference that his approval ratings are higher in Israel than they are in the US.
“Look at the numbers in Israel. My numbers are better in Israel than they are here. Then again, they’re better than a lot of other people here too,” Biden said.
A poll published last week on Channel 12 found that 48 percent of Israelis prefer Trump to be the next US president compared to 27%, who prefer Biden.
AP and Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
