Biden lives to combat one other day after ‘huge boy’ press convention

This is what a ‘big boy’ press conference looks like: Two teleprompt screens, a list of vetted journalists and press aides with microphones, ready to silence tricky questions.

The White House had leaned into the term, first used by a reporter, to signify that President Joe Biden would offer a no-holds-barred demonstration of his ability to parry tough questions.

Yet even with the guard rails of screens, fussing aides and an opening statement, Biden struggled at times with a raspy throat, botched lines and meandering answers.

He was asked whether Kamala Harris could beat Donald Trump if she was top of the ticket, and answered in excruciating fashion. 

‘Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if I didn’t think she was not qualified to be vice president,’ he said, triggering a Republican meme avalanche, with mashups of Harris and Trump appearing rapidly online.

Yet for the most part Biden did what he needed to do. He answered questions from 10 journalists and spoke for an hour on topics that ran the gamut from the Democratic convention and his health to long-range weapons for Ukraine and how to tackle a rising China. 

His allies and worried Democrats wanted a demonstration that he was still up to the job and, those embarrassing flubs aside, he delivered.

The bad news for Biden is that it changes nothing. He is still fighting for his political life.

This was never the make-or-break night it was billed in the media. It was a survive-or-die night. No performance would ever have been good enough to change the fundamentals. 

He is still the oldest president in history. He is still getting older. And, as he struggled to clear his throat time and time again, nights like these will become harder and harder.

He opened his press conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, where world leaders were marking the 75th birthday of NATO, with a filibustering teleprompted speech about the importance of alliances, and a list of his achievements in office.

The room full of about 100 journalists, all clutching phones bearing the text of the their prepared questions, became fidgety. 

Was this it? Was Biden doing a Trump, calling journalists in for a ‘press conference’ merely to talk at them and then leave?

‘With that, I’ll take your questions,’ said Biden to the almost audible relief of his audience. 

‘I’ve been given a list of people to call out here: Reuters, Jeff Mason.’ 

He was immediately asked about George Clooney‘s bombshell intervention a day earlier, calling on him to stand aside, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggesting there was still time to decide whether he was in or out.

‘There’s a long way to go this campaign,’ said Biden. ‘And so I I’m just going to keep moving, keep moving. 

‘And because look, I got more work to do. We got more work to finish this.’

If Biden’s future hung heavily over the NATO summit in Washington it was in part because that’s what Biden wanted. 

‘I guess a good way to judge me,’ he told George Stephanopoulos on ABC last week, would be to watch him at the summit. 

And watch, the world most certainly did. Maybe not everyone caught the details of the Ukraine Compact earlier in the day, and its array of security agreements and pledges, but everyone by now will have seen the way Biden introduced the Ukrainian president.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,’ he said before realizing he was meant to be introducing President Volodymyr Zelensky who is a very much currently at war with Putin.

A gasp ran around the room. Some people shouted the correct name as the leader of the free world tried to rally. ‘No, we’re going to beat Putin,’ he said, as if to suggest he simply had Putin on the brain rather than suffering a senior moment. 

The event, with so many world leaders in one place, was to show a president hard at work. On Friday he is off to Detroit, Michigan. If it’s Monday it’s Austin, Texas.

Biden made clear in the press conference that he had no intention of pulling out of the race. 

But it leaves Democrats with a dilemma. Top donors, supporters and key lawmakers have raised the alarm about whether the veteran is up to taking on Trump in November.

Yet he refuses to bow to time. And no performance will ever be good enough to silence the doubters on his own side.

‘I’m determined on running but I think it’s important that I allay fears — let them see me out there,’ he told reporters.

After an hour, his Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was intent on winding things up and getting everyone home without any more damage being done. ‘This concludes the press conference,’ she shouted from the floor.

Biden could not resist taking one last question.

Peter Alexander of NBC News pointed out that he earlier muddled Harris, his own vice president, with Trump. 

‘Right now Donald Trump is using that to mock your age and your memory,’ he said. ‘How do you combat that criticism?’

‘Listen to the other guy …’ he said with a smile, leaving with his best zinger of the night.