Several Democrats and progressives rushed to the defense of President Biden as he fielded questions from reporters at the NATO summit about his mental acuity and whether he has what it takes to be successful in the 2024 race for the White House.
Amid growing calls from members of his own party for him to step aside in the presidential election, Biden dismissed the notion that he’s “slowing down” and insisted at a press conference on Wednesday evening that he was “determined on running” in this year’s election.
“Am I getting the job done? Can you name me somebody who’s got more major pieces of legislation passed in three and a half years? I created 2000 jobs just last week. So if I slow down, I can’t get the job done,” Biden said. “That’s a sign that I shouldn’t be doing it. But there’s no indication of that yet. None.”
Despite multiple gaffes during the press conference, multiple Democrats took to social media to defend the president’s performance.
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President Biden at a news conference during the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., on July 11, 2024. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“To answer the question on everyone’s minds: No, Joe Biden does not have a doctorate in foreign affairs. He’s just that f—ing good,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates wrote in a post to X.
Kate Bedingfield, a former communications director for Biden, also weighed in on the president’s performance, claiming he “needed to show up big tonight and he did.”
“Tonight Joe Biden offered a lengthy, detailed dive on the major national security issues he’s juggling combined with a comfortable but forceful defense of his view of where this race stands. 50 minutes of Qs. He needed to show up big tonight and he did,” she wrote in a post to X.
Ex-Obama adviser David Axelrod also commended the president’s performance, said in a post on X that Biden is “very comfortable on national security issues.”
“The wisdom of doing this press conference at NATO is clear. Shaky on other stuff, the @POTUS is very comfortable on national security issues,” Axelrod wrote.
Joel Rubin, a former State Department official during the Obama administration, considered Trump’s performance to be “very strong.”
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“This is a very strong performance. Quite frankly. @POTUS is putting on a master class in how foreign policy and domestic policy intersect, explaining how crucial American global leadership is to our people here at home. Well done, Mr. President,” Rubin wrote in a post on X.
One Democratic activist went so far as to state he believes there are “people who owe President Biden an apology” after the president’s press conference.
During the press conference — Biden’s first since his disastrous debate against former President Donald Trump on June 27 — the president seemed to lose his train of thought and misspoke on a number of issues.
At the start of his remarks, Biden mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump” after he was asked by an AP reporter whether he had any concerns about Harris’ ability to beat Trump if she were the top of the ticket.
President Biden answers questions from reporters at a news conference during the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., on July 11, 2024. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president,” Biden said, not appearing to catch his mistake. “So, I think she is not qualified to be president [if I thought] she’s not qualified to be president.”
The flub came just a few hours after Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden did immediately correct his flub on that occasion.
Axelrod admitted in separate post on X that Biden’s mixup between Harris and Trump was “unsettling.”
Some Democrats, however, still have reservations about whether Biden is fit for office.
One Democratic source told Fox News the president’s performance at the press conference was the “worst possible outcome, unless you are Hunter [Biden] and need a pardon.”
Axelrod also highlighted concern about the issue on social media, writing, “If what he said at the end of his presser is true, it sounds like Biden’s team has not been very candid with him about what the data is showing: the age issue is a huge and potentially insurmountable concern and his odds of victory are very, very slim.”
President Biden speaks at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
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As speculation and calls for Biden to drop out, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said earlier this week that Democrats are keeping their thoughts on Biden quiet “until we see how we go this week.”
“Let’s just hold off,” she said on MSNBC. “Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”
