WASHINGTON — President Biden stunned journalists Thursday by confusing Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump — shortly after he confused Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky at a different event.
“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if I think she’s not qualified to be president,” the 81-year-old said to gasps and groans from journalists.
Biden convened the rare press conference to dispel mounting Democratic calls for him to step aside after a confused June 27 debate against Trump, 78.
Fourteen House Democrats and one Democratic senator have called on Biden to relinquish the presidential nomination ahead of the Nov. 5 election — but thus far he has insisted he will press forward and defeat Trump.
Democratic calls for Biden to depart the race were expected to surge if the president bungled the press conference.
Polls show Biden’s support cratering since the debate as fellow Democrats express fear of a Trump landslide.
Democrats who support Biden were anxious about the event at Washington’s Convention Center — which was his first time formally facing a room full of reporters in Washington since November 2022 and his first extended Q&A session with journalists since his confused June 27 debate performance.
“I feel like the narrative needs to change. So either Dems need to get behind Biden or he needs to step aside. But we are losing time,” a Democratic source close to the White House told The Post before the press conference.
“His press conference is another make-or-break moment.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly referred to the event as a “big boy” press conference where many reporters will be called upon — with the phrase irking some fellow West Wing staffers, who view it as infantilizing the commander-in-chief.
The president told Democratic governors at the White House last week that after the debate, he had decided to prevent recurrences of his on-stage issues by avoiding public events after 8 p.m.
Although polls have long shown that an overwhelming percentage of voters believe Biden is too old for another term, Democratic officeholders have increasingly agreed following Biden’s catastrophic debate against former President Trump, when the incumbent made puzzling remarks, including that he “finally beat Medicare.”
Rep. Hillary Scholten of Michigan on Thursday morning became the 10th House Democrat to publicly call for Biden to “step aside from the presidential race and allow a new leader to step up” — after Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont on Wednesday evening became the first Democrat from the upper chamber to ask Biden to call it quits, citing “valid questions” about his cognitive fitness.
What to know about the fallout from President Biden’s debate performance:
- President Biden’s poor performance in the first 2024 presidential debate left some Democrats unsure of his fitness for office and future as the party’s candidate.
- Biden told a crowd at a North Carolina rally the day after the debate that he doesn’t “debate as well as I used to” — but insisted that he can still “do this job.”
- The New York Times editorial board called on the president to serve the country by dropping out of the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a similar editorial a day later.
- In a pre-taped interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden claimed that his “bad episode” at the debate was the result of a cold and not any cognitive issues.
- Biden has rejected calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats, insisting to Stephanopoulos that he is the most qualified to win the election. At a Wisconsin rally, he declared that he is “running and going to win again.”
- Ten congressional Democrats have joined in calling for Biden’s exit from the race. Former Biden supporter George Clooney echoed these calls in an op-ed published in the New York Times just weeks after he helped lead a record-breaking fundraiser for the Democrat.
- Democratic voters have continued to raise concerns about Biden’s nomination since the debate, with speculations and suggestions for replacement nominees running rampant.
Reps. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Mike Quigley of Illinois, Angie Craig of Minnesota, Adam Smith of Washington, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Pat Ryan of New York and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon previously asked Biden to exit the race.
Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Joseph Morelle (D-NY) reportedly said on a Sunday conference call that they want Biden to end his candidacy, but the trio have not publicly confirmed it and Nadler said Tuesday he supports Biden since he’s decided not to relinquish the nomination.
Actor George Clooney, who hosted a $30 million Los Angeles fundraiser for Biden in June, on Wednesday urged the president to step aside — reportedly after discussing his plan to do so with former President Barack Obama, who did not discourage Clooney.
Let’s break down Clooney’s role in Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign
- George Clooney has played a role in Democratic fundraising since Barack Obama’s 2012 run, including leading a benefit for former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020 and another in June 2024.
- Clooney, joined by actresses Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, helped Biden take in a record $30 million-plus at a star-studded fundraising event in New York City just last month.
- Just weeks later, Clooney turned on Biden and published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the 81-year-old to leave the race following his atrocious debate appearance.
- Clooney wrote that Biden “cannot win” in November, adding that the president is not the man he used to know, but rather “the same man we all witnessed at the debate.” The actor even said that “every senator and Congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private” agrees that Biden must step down.
- Donald Trump blasted Clooney for his comments, telling him to “get out of politics and go back to TV,” and said the actor had “turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”
- A report also revealed that Obama knew ahead of time what Clooney planned to write and did not object to the op-ed.
“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Vice President Kamala Harris is the most likely replacement candidate should Biden step aside, though many of her critics doubt she would perform any better in the Nov. 5 election due to even lower approval ratings.