WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is holding a news conference Thursday evening, the key event in a monumental week for his campaign as he fends off calls for him to step aside as the party’s presumptive nominee. His big moment comes on the last day of the NATO summit.
After a dismal debate performance, Biden’s candidacy is still under question. The first Senate Democrat, Peter Welch of Vermont, and over a dozen House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to end his campaign.
One of the staunchest supporters in the president’s corner has been his wife Jill Biden. As she tries to help her husband salvage his campaign she’s also coming under new scrutiny from critics who’ve cast her as a power-hungry wife pushing her 81-year-old husband to run again.
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Democratic Governors watch news conference during gathering
Some Democratic governors are watching the president’s press conference in a private viewing during a meeting of the National Governors Association.
A couple of groans could be heard as Hawaii Gov. Josh Green stepped outside during the news conference. It wasn’t immediately clear what they were responding to.
Green told The Associated Press that he supports the president’s choice to run.
“My admiration and love for the president is not going to wane no matter how many ‘moments’ he has,” Green said. The governor said the state loves him because of what he did to help after the Maui fire.
Questions shift to foreign policy
Biden’s news conference has shifted largely from questions about whether he’s up to continuing his reelection campaign to foreign policy.
“There isn’t any world leader I’m not prepared to deal with,” the president said.
He also vowed to maintain a hard line against Russian President Vladimir Putin: “If we allow Russia to succeed in Ukraine, they’re not stopping in Ukraine.”
Journalists tackle Biden health issue head-on
Journalists at Biden’s news conference charged from the gate with questions about his health, showing no hesitation at tackling the issue head-on.
The first five questioners all asked something about his health — some by itself, some embedded in questions about other things.
Finally, 15 minutes in, a reporter — a non-American — asked about European concerns if Donald Trump were to resume the presidency.
For his part, Biden answered some of the health questions emphatically but, on others, shifted the answers to focusing on the economy, the success of the NATO conference and other non-health-related topics.
Trump weighs in live on Biden’s news conference
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee posted on his social media network a video clip of when Biden said “Vice President Trump.”
Trump added sarcastically at the end: “Great job, Joe!”
Biden tries to calm those worried he’ll have another ‘bad night’
Biden said the best way to reassure anyone who is concerned about him having another “bad night” is “the way I assure myself and that is, ‘Am I getting the job done.’”
The president said “there’s no indication yet” that he’s slowing down on that front.
Biden had explained his poor debate performance against Trump last month by saying he had a “bad night.”
Biden says he never suggested he needs an earlier bedtime
Biden is denying that he previously said he needs to cut back on his schedule to get to bed by 8 p.m.
The president told reporters that, in previous conversations, what he meant was “it’d be smarter to pace myself a little bit.”
He suggested that working from early in the morning until near midnight was probably not a great idea and suggested that evening fundraisers for his reelection campaign could begin an hour or two earlier going forward.
Biden also vowed that, ahead of his second debate with Trump in September, “I’m not going to be traveling 15 time zones.”
“Pace myself. Pace myself,” he said.
Biden responds defensively to reporter asking about the drama over his political fate
Asked whether the focus on his flubs and the pressure to drop out of the race has become damaging for the United States, Biden pushed back on the question.
“Have you seen a more successful conference?” he asked. “What do you think?”
Biden did not address the question, but he asserted that the just-concluded NATO summit was “the most successful conference I attended in a long time.”
Biden insists he’s not in presidential race ‘for my legacy,’ says he’s running to ‘complete the job I started’
Biden was asked how it might hurt his place in the history books if he were to keep running and lose to Trump in November — but insisted he’s not concerned. Instead, he said, his focus is continuing four more years of policies to grow the economy and help the middle class.
“I’m not in this for my legacy,” Biden said. “I’m in this to complete the job I started.”
Biden’s first question is on shrinking support from many fellow Democrats
The first question of Biden’s press conference was about him losing support among many of his fellow Democrats and key unions, and about Vice President Kamala Harris possibly replacing him on the ticket.
Biden was at first defiant, saying the “UAW endorsed me, but go ahead,” meaning the United Autoworkers.
But then he flubbed the answer, mixing up Harris and Trump: “I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if she wasn’t qualified.”
Biden blasts Trump in news conference, says presumptive GOP opponent has ‘no commitment to NATO’
President Joe Biden opened his news conference by talking about NATO and security for Ukraine. He then shifted to discussing inflation and border security in the U.S., as well as negotiations for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
He then began taking reporters’ questions.
Biden opens highly anticipated news conference
Biden is opening a highly anticipated news conference with a statement on the just-concluded 75TH anniversary NATO summit he hosted in Washington.
He’ll start taking reporters’ questions after that.
UK prime minister wants to talk substance, not Biden flub
New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declined to directly answer repeated questions about Biden’s brief verbal flub referring to Zelenskyy as “President Putin.”
Instead Starmer praised Biden for his leadership and his preparation in putting the event together and securing solid outcomes for Ukraine.
“I want to look at the substance of what’s been achieved over these two days,” said Starmer, who is making his debut on the international stage.
He said he spent several hours with the president in a private meeting and a dinner but would not offer an opinion on Biden’s capabilities.
France’s Macron says Biden ‘very much on top of things’
When asked about Biden referring to Zelenskyy as Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would not comment on U.S. politics but anyone can have a slip of the tongue.
“We can all have a slip of the tongue. It’s happened to me,” Macron told reporters, speaking through an interpreter.
Macron said he had a long discussion with Biden during Wednesday’s dinner and heard his discussions in summit meetings. He described Biden as “very much on top of things.”
“He knows the issues and around the table he is amongst those who has the greatest depth of knowledge on these international issues,” said Macron.
Democratic governors gather to watch Biden face the press
As Biden prepares for his high-stakes news conference in Washington, the National Governors Association is meeting for its conference in Salt Lake City.
The nine Democratic governors present for the event filed into a private room to watch a livestream with their staffs and other Democratic officials.
Reporters were not invited in.
Biden news conference pushed back
The timing of the news conference President Joe Biden is set to hold Thursday has been changed from 6:30 p.m. EDT to no earlier than 7 p.m., and it could be held later than that due to events at the NATO summit.
More NATO allies hitting defense spending goals
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg gave the United States — and Donald Trump in particular — some of the credit Thursday for a record number of NATO countries hitting their agreed-to spending goals for military spending.
But while Trump has been the most prominent critic of fellow NATO allies that don’t meet those goals, it was Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine that really spurred defense spending in Europe. NATO expects 23 of the 32 countries to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense this year.
That number was just six countries in 2021, before Russia’s invasion.
“The clear message from the United States has had an impact. European allies are really stepping up,” Stoltenberg said.
American leaders, including Biden, have long had the same complaint. Trump has hit the point harder and more often.
Biden accidentally refers to Ukrainian leader as ‘President Putin’
President Joe Biden was winding down his remarks at an event on the sidelines of the NATO summit with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other leaders on Thursday when he made an untimely verbal flub: He referred to the Ukrainian leader as “President Putin.”
“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.
The room, and Zelenskyy, gasped at Biden’s gaffe, which the U.S. president quickly sought to clean up.
“President Putin? You’re going to beat President Putin,” Biden said to Zelenskyy at the event to mark the unveiling of an agreement called the Ukraine Compact. “I’m so focused on beating Putin; we got to worry about it,” Biden explained.
Zelenskyy joked: “I’m better” than Putin.
Biden agreed. “You’re a hell of a lot better.”
Trump lawyers press judge to overturn hush money conviction after Supreme Court immunity ruling
Donald Trump’s lawyers are urging the judge in his New York hush money case to overturn his conviction and dismiss the case in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.
The former president’s lawyers wrote in papers made public Thursday that prosecutors rushed to try Trump in April and May while the high court was still considering his immunity claims.
“Rather than wait for the Supreme Court’s guidance, the prosecutors scoffed with hubris at President Trump’s immunity motions and insisted on rushing to trial,” Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. “Your Honor now has the authority to address these injustices, and the court is duty-bound to do so in light of the Supreme Court’s decision.”
Trump was originally scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, but that’s on hold until the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, rules on whether to set aside Trump’s felony conviction for falsifying records to cover up a potential sex scandal.
Merchan has said he’ll rule on the defense’s request on Sept. 6 and will sentence Trump on Sept. 18, “if such is still necessary.” Prosecutors have until July 24 to respond to the defense’s arguments.
Hawaii congressman joins list of Democrats asking Biden to step aside
The number of Democratic members of Congress calling for Biden to drop out of the presidential race is continuing to grow, with U.S. Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii adding his name to the list.
Case said in a statement late Thursday afternoon that it’s unclear whether Biden can perform “the most difficult job in the world” for another four years.
Case acknowledged that replacing him would be “difficult and uncertain” but he did not believe continuing with Biden would be the “best path forward for our country.”
More than a dozen House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to step aside.
