“Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin.” Joe Biden mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with these words at the NATO summit on Thursday, July 11. He then corrected himself, but the mistake caused noticeable tension. The slip of the tongue was ill-timed. Every one of Joe Biden’s public appearances has become a health assessment. His evening press conference was his first since November 2023, highlighting the protective bubble his advisers have created around him. A bubble that burst during his failed performance in the televised debate with Donald Trump at the end of June, plunging the Democrats into an intractable crisis.
The White House described the event as a “big boy” press conference, disregarding the potentially infantilizing tone. Biden spent an hour answering reporters’ questions to the best of his current ability, demonstrating both effort and limitation. He reiterated his determination to maintain his candidacy, considering himself both “the most competent” and the best placed to face Trump. “I’m not in this for my legacy. I’m here to complete the job I started.” Ultimately, everyone in the Democratic camp can draw on his words and attitude to confirm previous convictions, for or against his withdrawal from the race.
Biden made two blunders, pointed out by Trump supporters. When asked about Kamala Harris’s qualifications, he mistakenly referred to “Vice President Trump.” Later, he said he was following the advice of his “commander in chief,” presumably meaning the chief of the general staff. Despite these gaffes, the US president demonstrated his mastery of foreign policy. Biden made several long, detailed statements on the relationship between the United States and China, the manufacture of microprocessors in the US, support for Ukraine in the face of Russia and the war in Gaza. Nothing sharp came out of it, but he projected competence if not vitality. His performance is now judged by his missteps, whether made or avoided.
However, there was also a second Joe Biden on the stage, one in denial since the debate, avoiding questions about his physical and intellectual condition. This Biden is confident in his destiny and dismissive of concerned Democratic politicians, polls and pundits, stubbornly defying them all. The debate? “That stupid mistake.” “I just got to, just, pace myself a little more,” added the octogenarian, who rejected the idea of a cognitive test unless his personal physician asked him to. He also brushed aside any suggestion of withdrawing from the race, “unless they came back and said, there’s no way you can win.” He added, “No one’s saying that. No poll says that.”
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