Biden mistakenly calls Kamala Harris ‘Vice-President Trump’
Biden is now taking questions from reporters.
He is asked if he has concerns about vice-president Kamala Harris’s ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket.
Biden says he “wouldn’t have picked vice-president Trump to be vice-president if I didn’t think she was not qualified to be president”.
Key events
“There are other people who could beat Trump, too,” Biden said, at the press conference. But, he added “it’s awful hard to start from scratch.”
The news conference tonight was the president’s first in eight months, and was intended to show that he remained sharp enough to face off against Donald Trump. Foreign policy is an area that Biden has tended to feel very comfortable discussing.
Here’s former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod:
The wisdom of doing this press conference at NATO is clear. Shaky on other stuff, the @POTUS is very comfortable on national security issues.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) July 12, 2024
But Biden’s slip-ups and gaffes may end up overshadowing the rest of his performance. On MSNBC, host Rachel Maddow noted that his halting speech isn’t helping, marking a discrepancy “between his stylistic presentation and his truly masterful command of the subject matter”.
As soon as the press conference wrapped, Representative Jim Himes, a Democrat of Connecticut and a member of the House intelligence committee, joined the small but growing group of congressional Democrats asking Biden to step down.
“We must put forth the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump’s promised Maga authoritarianism,” Himes wrote in a statement. “I no longer believe that is Joe Biden.”
Joe Biden’s record of public service is unrivaled. His accomplishments are immense. His legacy as a great president is secure.
He must not risk that legacy, those accomplishments and American democracy to soldier on in the face of the horrors promised by Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/FMMrTK8pb8
— Jim Himes 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇦🇺🇦 (@jahimes) July 12, 2024
‘I think I’m the best qualified to win,’ Biden says
Biden is asked whether he would allow delegates to vote with their conscience if they have second thoughts about him.
“Obviously they’re free to do whatever they want,” Biden replies, but says that he has “overwhelming support”.
He questions the results from recent polls, saying that all the current data is premature “because the campaign really hasn’t even started”. Biden says:
I believe I’m the best qualified to govern, and I think I’m the best qualified to win.
Biden says he is surrounded by good doctors every single day.
If they think there’s a problem, I promise you, or even if they don’t think it’s a problem, but they think I should have a neurologic exam again, I’ll do it.
He says that “no one is suggesting that” to him now, and claims that no matter what he does, “no one’s going to be satisfied.”
Biden is asked if he is open to taking a physical or cognitive test.
Biden says he has taken three significant and intense neurological exams as recently as February, and that the results say that he is in “good shape”.
He notes that he has a “little problem” with his left foot because he broke it and didn’t wear the boot. “But I’m good,” he says.
I’m tested every single day about my neurological capacity by decisions I make every day.
Biden becomes very animated as he turns to the subject of gun control, and says “control guns, not girls” in reference to women’s reproductive rights.
He points to the number of children killed by guns each year.
More children are killed by a bullet than any other cause of death. The United States of America. What the hell are we doing?
He says he has “got to finish this job because there’s so much at stake”.
Biden ‘determined’ to run against Trump: ‘Let them see me out there’
Biden says he is “determined” to keep running in November.
I’m determined on running, but I think it’s important that I allay fears. I say let them see me out there.
Biden is asked what has changed since his candidacy in 2020, when he referred to himself as being a bridge candidate for a younger, fresher generation of Democratic leaders.
Biden says what has changed is the “gravity of the situation” that he inherited in terms of the economy and US foreign policy.
He says that most presidential historians have given him credit for having accomplished more than most any president since Johnson, “and maybe before that”, to get major pieces of legislation passed.
What I realised was my long time in the Senate had equipped me to have the wisdom on how to deal with the Congress to get things done. We got more major legislation passed that no one thought would happen. I want to get that finished.
Biden calls Israel ‘less than cooperative’ over Gaza aid
Biden is asked about Gaza, and if he wished he had done anything differently over the course of the war.
Biden says he immediately went to Israel and was in immediate contact with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and the Jordanian leader, to try to get a consensus on how to get more aid and food and medicine into the Gaza Strip.
“We pushed it really hard,” Biden says, but Israel was “occasionally less than cooperative”. He points to the Israeli war cabinet as being one of the most conservative war cabinets in the history of Israel.
He says he put together a process for a two-state solution, because “the question has been from the beginning – what’s the day after in Gaza?”
Biden says he has been “disappointed” that some of the things that he put forward have not succeeded.
Biden: ‘no good reason’ to talk to Putin at the moment
Biden says he has “no good reason” to talk to Vladimir Putin right now.
Biden says he is dealing with Xi Jinping and is in direct contact with the Chinese president.
But the Russian president is not prepared to do anything in terms of “accommodating any change in his behaviour”, Biden says.
I’m not ready to talk to Putin unless Putin’s ready to change his behaviour.
Biden is asked about whether he has a strategy of trying to interrupt the partnership between China and Russia.
Biden says he has spent more time, including his time as vice-president, with Xi Jinping than any other world leader has.
He says China has to understand that they are not going to “benefit economically” if it supplies Russia with information and capacity, and if it works with North Korea to help Russia’s armaments.
Biden says that he has not had European leaders coming up to him and asking him not to run.
What I hear them say is, you’ve got to win. You’ve can’t let this guy [Donald Trump] come forward. It would be disaster.
Biden says that Trump seems to have an affinity to people who are authoritarian and that worries Europe.
What I can say is, I think I’m the best qualified person to do the job to make sure that Ukraine does not fall, that Ukraine succeeds.
Biden is asked how he can assure the American people that he won’t have “more bad nights” like on the debate stage last month.
Biden says the best way to assure them is to ask if he is “getting the job done”. He says:
Can you name me somebody who’s got more major pieces of legislation passed in three-and-a-half years?
Biden is asked if he is reconsidering lifting the restrictions placed on Ukraine on the use of American weapons in targets in Russian territory.
Biden says the question is what would be the best use of the weaponry that Kyiv has.
If Zelenskiy had the capacity to strike Moscow, to strike the Kremlin, would that make sense? It wouldn’t.
He says he is following the advice “of my commander in chief, my chiefs of staff of the military as well as our secretary of defense and our intelligence people” to determine what is a “logical thing to do” on a day-to-day basis.