Joe Biden called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” and introduced Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” on a night in which he made egregious mistakes while fighting for his political life.
The 81-year-old president insisted he does not need a cognitive test because he is “in good shape” at a news conference in which he rambled, mumbled and coughed amid a mountain of calls for him to step aside.
He denied reports that he wants more sleep, blamed staff for his disastrous debate performance and said his wife Jill “makes him suffer” at the hour-long NATO summit news conference that did nothing to ease concerns among Democrats who want him off the ticket.
Biden, who is ailing, insisted he will remain in the race, rejected claims he is unfit to serve and said there are no polls showing he would lose to Trump in the November general election.
He predicted he would not be ruled out as a candidate, but in a surprising statement opened the door to being replaced by saying delegates at the Democratic National Convention could vote for whomever they wanted.
Biden began the highly choreographed event with pre-arranged remarks about NATO, pulled out a sheet of paper with a list of reporters to answer questions and began with a botched response.
“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump as vice president if I thought she wasn’t qualified to be president,” Biden said an hour after introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” in an embarrassing gaffe.
President Joe Biden said he “picked Vice President Trump,” ripping his response about Vice President Kamala Harris at a news conference where Democrats were judging him on his abilities as a candidate.
Biden mistakenly said “Vice President Trump” in defending Harris’s ability to govern, as his party debates whether to try to get rid of him. She would be a leading candidate to take his place
He made another mistake when he said he was following the advice of his commander in chief — a title he holds — when discussing restricting the use of American weapons in Ukraine.
On their own, these gaffes might have been par for the course for Biden, but they came at a time when he is being closely watched by congressional Democrats, with another lawmaker, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, calling on Biden to step away from his campaign just minutes after the news conference ended.
Trump mocked Harris’s gaffe with a post where he sarcastically wrote: ‘Good job, Joe!’
Biden’s X account tried to make the most of it, writing In response: ‘By the way, yes, I know the difference. One is a prosecutor and the other is a criminal.
Biden expressed confidence in his ability to win, even as he showed a new willingness to consider taking a neurological exam under certain circumstances, in a race where a new Washington Post/ABC poll had a majority of Democrats urging him to step back.
Biden and the White House have repeatedly dismissed the request for a review, with Biden himself saying that “no matter what I do, no one will be satisfied.”
He did, however, say he had undergone “three major, intense neurological exams by a neurosurgeon, a neurologist” as part of his annual physical. “And they say I’m in good shape,” Biden said.
The Harris gaffe came shortly after Biden mistakenly called Volodymyr Zelensky ‘Putin,’ the leader who is waging war against his country.
He said he would get another test “if the neurologist tells me he thinks I need another test.”
“If you think there’s a problem, I promise you I’ll do it,” Biden said. “Nobody is suggesting that to me right now.”
Following his disastrous debate performance, some experts, including Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a prominent CNN commentator, have urged Biden to take a cognitive test.
Biden reflected on the benefits of age, though he dismissed concerns about his stiff gait, which has sparked long-distance speculation on the Internet about symptoms associated with Parkinson’s.
“I have a little problem with my left foot because I broke it and I didn’t wear the boot,” Biden said, referring to the fracture he suffered in 2020.
“The only thing age does is create a little wisdom if you pay attention,” Biden said.
Biden has expressed confidence in Harris and the advice of medical experts, but some of his fellow Democrats want to know if he will heed the poor polling data. Asked if he would concede if advisers told him Harris would do better against Trump than he did, Biden replied: “No. Unless they come back and say there’s no way you can win, I don’t. Nobody’s saying that. No polls say that,” he said, lowering his voice to his trademark whisper.