Biden Reaffirms 2024 Candidacy Amid Gaffes and Questions on Fitness

U.S. President Joe Biden insisted he will be the Democratic candidate in November’s presidential election, in a much-anticipated Thursday night news conference at the close of the NATO Summit in Washington.

But Biden’s attempt to prove his fitness — called into doubt by what many analysts described as a “disastrous” performance in his June 27 debate with Republican rival Donald Trump — was overshadowed by a couple of gaffes, including an earlier appearance where he mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “Putin.”

In what could be one of the most consequential events of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Biden held court with reporters for almost an hour in the evening. Almost all the questions concerned his health and ability to govern.

“I’m just going to keep moving,” the 81-year-old incumbent said.

“We’ve made so much progress,” he added, arguing that no other president had accomplished so much legislatively in three and a half years. He attributed the success to his experience in the Senate and said he was the best qualified candidate to beat Trump.

In an effort to show he could speak off the cuff, the president perhaps inadvertently revealed some behind-the-scenes details of his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “There’s a direct line between Xi and me,” he said, when explaining that the U.S. and China reestablished contact after the 2023 spy balloon incident brought engagement to a halt.

It was not immediately clear what kind of “direct line” he was referring to, as no such hotline has been disclosed. “I’m dealing with Xi right now, in direct contact with him,” he said. “There is an inclination on the part of the Chinese to keep in contact with me because they’re not sure where this all goes,” he added.

This was Biden’s first such briefing since his widely panned debate with Trump, when he appeared lethargic and struggled to make coherent points.

Unlike in the debate, where he often could not finish sentences, the president managed to go back and forth with reporters on Thursday. The only major stumble was when he called his Vice President Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump,” which the Republican Party immediately highlighted on social media.

Biden spoke highly of Harris, saying that he would not have chosen her as vice president if he did not think she could be president. Harris can “handle almost any issue on the board” and was “a hell of a prosecutor.”

When asked if he would consider handing the reins to her if he was shown data that she would fare better against Trump, Biden replied: “No, unless they came back and said there’s no way you can win. No one’s saying that. No poll says that.”

The more concerning gaffe happened before the evening news conference.

At the Ukraine Compact meeting on the sidelines of the NATO Summit earlier the same day, Biden introduced Zelenskyy by saying: “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.”

Amid gasps in the room, Biden went back to the microphone to say the gaffe was because “I’m so focused on beating Putin.”

Zelenskyy took the process in stride, joking, “I’m better.”

Biden quickly replied, “You’re a hell of a lot better.”

Pressure is mounting on Biden to reconsider his candidacy. Minutes before the evening briefing, congressional news site The Hill reported that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, is “working furiously behind the scenes” to put pressure on Biden to reconsider his place at the top of the party’s 2024 ticket. The publication cited “a number of Democratic lawmakers familiar with her efforts.”

On Wednesday, Pelosi told MSNBC that the decision was the president’s to make. But she did not unequivocally endorse Biden as the Democratic candidate, signaling that the issue was still an open question.