Biden has more stumbles during the press conference

WASHINGTON — Just two hours after conflating Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin in public remarks, President Joe Biden switched his own vice president, Kamala Harris, with his coup-attempting predecessor Donald Trump at a high-stakes news conference Thursday night – a This blunder is likely to heighten concerns about his ability to defeat Trump in November.

In the very first question asked about his confidence in Harris, Biden said, “I would not have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if I didn’t think she was unqualified to be president.”

At a final event of the NATO summit earlier, Biden had incorrectly referred to Ukrainian President Zelenskiy as Russia’s “President Putin” before quickly correcting himself.

Democrats worried about Biden’s disastrous performance in his June 27 debate against Trump and looking for a solid performance at a wide-ranging news conference were probably not reassured.

Although he looked healthier and sounded sharper and more confident than during his debate, Biden suffered several minor verbal stumbles. He told reporters gathered at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center that he was following the “advice of his commander in chief” before correcting himself to say “chief of staff.” Referring to the jobs report published in June, he said he had just created “2,000” jobs, when he meant 200,000.

He later acknowledged that he would probably have to adjust his work schedule so that he no longer starts his day at 7 a.m. and works past midnight. “I just need to pick up the pace,” he said.

He also acknowledged that he has kept to his busy schedule, in part to assuage Democrats’ concerns. “I think it’s important that I take away the fear,” he said.

As for concerns about his age, Biden, as in the past, sought to turn them to his advantage: “The one thing age does is it creates a little bit of wisdom if you pay attention.”

Concerns about Biden’s age were largely set aside after Democrats’ surprisingly strong performance in the 2022 midterm elections, when an expected “red wave” failed to materialize.

Biden went on to deliver powerful State of the Union speeches in 2023 and in March this year, once again allaying fears about his ability to mount a full-fledged election campaign. That wouldn’t have been necessary in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic made a largely virtual campaign seem both reasonable and responsible.

Democrats were hopeful that his challenge to debate Trump this year showed he was prepared to deliver another strong performance and perhaps change the trajectory of a race that remained stubbornly close to a tie even after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies after an election victory in New York City. process.

That hope collapsed within fifteen minutes on the night of June 27, when Biden, looking pale, staggered through non sequitur after non sequitur in a weak voice.

It is unclear how Thursday’s press conference will influence the thinking of Democratic lawmakers, donors and voters.

Biden and the Democrats have until mid-August to decide whether to stick with him or choose another candidate at their party’s convention in Chicago.