Biden’s first press conference after presidential debate filled with confusion, mumbling and defiance

4 Min Read
Joe Biden
Joe Biden

President Joe Biden held a defiant first press conference after his presidential debate with former president Donald Trump, leading to high-profile Democrats calling for him to step aside.

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Biden’s message was to insist he is “the best candidate” to beat Donald Trump in the upcoming election; albeit through many stumbles. Biden read prepared remarks off a teleprompter and answered questions from a pre-selected list of reporters Thursday night at NATO’s 75th anniversary summit, reports National Review. 

The president coughed, whispered, stumbled over his words, and lost his stream of thought multiple times throughout the conference intending to show his leadership capabilities. At one point he even referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”

Before speaking to reporters, Biden confused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Russian president Vladimir Putin when he introduced Zelenskyy at a NATO event celebrating the alliance’s support for Ukraine.

The event was Biden’s first solo press conference since November of last year, when he took questions after his summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping in California.

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“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be vice president,” Biden accidentally said, defending his choice of Harris as his running mate.

“I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once and I will beat him again,” Biden demanded.

When asked whether it would harm his legacy if he were to lose to Trump in November, he challenged the question, saying “I’m not in this for my legacy.” He subsequently explained why he abandoned his “bridge” candidate pledge instead of anointing a successor.

“What changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited,” Biden said, citing the economic turbulence and geopolitical crisis of his first term. “My long time in the Senate equipped me to have the wisdom on how to deal with the Congress to get things done.”

Biden did acknowledge his need to slow down and his staffers’s desire to add events to his schedule, a tendency he said angered First Lady Jill Biden.

“I love my staff, but they add things. They add things all the time. I’m catching hell from my wife,” Biden stated.

At times, Biden gave long-winded, rambling answers on foreign policy, going into detail about working with world leaders and cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. During these stream of conscious answers, Biden repeatedly lost his trains of thought and stumbled over his words, repeating “anyway” and “the idea” as verbal crutches, noted National Review.

Asked about how he would fare at the end of a second term, Biden maintained that he’d be ready to deal with the leaders of hostile countries.

“I’m ready to deal with them now and three years from now,” Biden said of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin, America’s two most powerful adversaries.

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