U.S. President Joe Biden held what the White House called a “big boy” news conference early Thursday evening. It was a solo encounter against some tough questions as he faces calls from some Democrats to abandon his reelection bid amid doubts that he has the mental and physical capacity to defeat former President Donald Trump.
It was a crucial event for the 81-year-old Biden as he seeks a second four-year term in the White House. His mental acuity and physical stamina have been repeatedly questioned by his longtime Democratic allies and mocked by Trump supporters since his halting, confused performance at his debate with Trump two weeks ago.
Biden often lost his train of thought during the encounter with Trump, failing to carry the attack against his Republican challenger or vigorously defend his own 3½ years in office. The president looked tired and his hoarse voice at times made him hard to understand.
Since then, he has described his debate performance as “a bad night” and not an indication that his mental sharpness has diminished.
But numerous Democratic officials have privately or publicly called for Biden to withdraw from his reelection bid or voiced concerns about his chances of defeating Trump for a second time after narrowly edging him in the 2020 election. National polls and surveys in must-win political battleground states have mostly showed Trump pulling ahead of Biden in the campaign heading to the November 5 election.
Biden’s allies and political opponents are sure to watch closely, to see whether he authoritatively answers reporters’ questions, or struggles and again loses his train of thought. It is unknown how long the news conference will last or how many questions he will take.
A good performance could steady Biden’s campaign while a fumbling session could lead to more calls for him to end his five-decade career in public life as a senator, vice president and president. Some Democrats have already called for Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic presidential nominee.
White House officials have acknowledged it is a significant moment, calling it is a “big boy” press conference, as opposed to Biden’s more frequent encounters with the news media when he and a foreign leader, standing side by side, take two questions apiece and then leave the scene.
At this point in his presidential term, Biden has held fewer news conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Biden’s last solo news conference was eight months ago.
Since his halting debate performance with Trump, Biden has made several public appearances but mostly has made brief, scripted remarks and read from a teleprompter. He sat for a 22-minute interview with ABC News last Friday and, while steady, failed to ease Democrats’ concerns about his candidacy. He has agreed to another sit-down interview with NBC News on Monday.
Biden has unequivocally declared that he is committed to remaining in his reelection campaign but some of his Democratic colleagues are not sure he can defeat Trump and they are treating his decision to keep campaigning as a question yet to be decided.
On Wednesday, Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and still an influential voice in Democratic circles, expressed uncertainty that Biden will be the Democratic presidential candidate.
“It's up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” Pelosi told MSNBC. “We're all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short. He's beloved, he is respected, and people want him to make that decision. Not me.”
A news anchor noted that Biden “has made the decision. He has said firmly this week he is going to run. Do you want him to run?”
Pelosi responded, “I want him to do whatever he decides to do, and that's — that's the way it is. Whatever he decides, we go with.”
Actor George Clooney, who helped raise millions of dollars for Biden at a Hollywood fundraiser last month, called on Biden to withdraw.
"Top Democrats — Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi — and senators, representatives and other candidates who face losing in November need to ask this president to voluntarily step aside," Clooney said in a New York Times opinion article.
Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado told his Democratic colleagues earlier this week he did not think Biden would win the election.
Bennet later told CNN he thinks Trump is on track to “maybe win it by a landslide and take with him the Senate and the House.” But he declined to say Biden should step aside.
Biden has vowed to stay in the race, saying that only the “the Lord Almighty” asking him to end his campaign could force him out. He urged Democratic lawmakers earlier this week to quickly get behind his campaign and end the drama over whether he might drop out.
He has said that “average Democrats” want him to stay in the race and dismissed the calls of the “elite” in Washington to drop out.
Some Democratic lawmakers adopted a wait-and-see stance on Biden continuing in the presidential race as he hosted the NATO summit and ahead of the news conference.
“Right now, President Biden is the nominee, and we support the Democratic nominee that will beat Donald Trump,” a House Democratic leader, Representative Pete Aguilar of California said. “Let’s see. Let’s see the press conference. Let’s see the campaign stops. Let’s see all of this, because all of it is going to be necessary.”
