Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (2024)

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Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Here are five takeaways from Biden’s news conference.

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President Biden on Thursday answered questions from reporters about foreign policy, whether he is up to defeating former President Donald J. Trump and why he is resisting calls from Democrats to end his candidacy, as he sought to recover from a crisis of confidence that has engulfed his campaign.

With a growing number of Democratic lawmakers, donors and elected officials urging Mr. Biden to drop out of the race after a disastrous debate performance last month, the closing news conference of a NATO summit in Washington became a high-stakes chance for the president to quiet concerns about his candidacy. The results were mixed.

Mr. Biden stumbled early but remained defiant in the face of questions about his fitness to continue his campaign. He struggled to articulate a cohesive case for his candidacy, even as he gave a forceful defense of his record and showed a strong command over foreign policy.

Here are five takeaways:

He said he is not leaving.

Mr. Biden vowed to stay in the presidential race. “I’m determined on running,” Mr. Biden said. He dismissed polling showing him losing to Mr. Trump and insisted, “I think I’m the best qualified person to do the job.” But he also acknowledged that the schedule of the presidency had become challenging. “I just got to, just, pace myself a little more,” Mr. Biden said.

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“There has been reporting that you’ve acknowledged that you need to go to bed earlier, end your evening around 8.” “That’s not true. Look, what I said was, instead of my every day starting at 7 and going to bed at midnight, it’d be smarter for me to pace myself a little more. And I said, for example, the 8, 7, 6 stuff, instead of starting a fundraiser at 9 o‘clock, start at 8 o‘clock. People get to go home by 10 o‘clock. That’s what I’m talking about.”

Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (2)

Before the debate, he said, his schedule was “full-bore” and he made the “stupid mistake” of too much travel and too many late nights before the debate. Mr. Biden also blamed his staff for the packed days. “I love my staff,” Mr. Biden said. “But they add things. They add things all the time at the very end.”

He got off to a rough start.

Mr. Biden’s response to the first question contained the kind of fumble that has caused Democrats anxiety. Asked about the ability of Vice President Kamala Harris to defeat Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden said that he “wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president.”

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”What concerns do you have about Vice President Harris’s ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?“ ”Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president. So let’s start there.“

Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (3)

He also slipped while answering a question about military assistance to Ukraine, saying he follows the advice of his “commander in chief” — which is the president — before correcting himself and mentioning his senior military commanders. For the most part, though, he avoided the kinds of prolonged, painful moments he experienced during the debate in which he was unable to complete a thought, even as he meandered at times in his answers.

He showed a command of foreign policy.

In the face of questions over his mental acuity, Mr. Biden showed he still had a strong grasp on substance when it came to global affairs. He gave long, detailed answers on various foreign policy matters, including when he said he was prepared to interrupt the relationship between China and Russia. “We have to make sure that Xi understands that there’s a price to pay,” Mr. Biden said, referring to President Xi Jinping of China.

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Xi believes that China is a large enough market that they can entice any country, including European countries, to invest there in return for commitments from Europe to do A, B, C or D or not to do certain things. China has to understand that if they are supplying Russia with information and capacity, along with working with North Korea and others to help Russia in armament, that they’re not going to benefit economically. We have to make sure that Xi understands there’s a price to pay for undercutting both the Pacific Basin as well as Europe and as it relates to Russia and dealing with Ukraine.

Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (4)

He reiterated his longstanding position that Ukraine should not be allowed to use American weapons to strike deep into Russia, including Moscow and the Kremlin. And he detailed his efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, noting that Israel “occasionally” was “less than cooperative.” He also made the case for the global stakes of the election, saying fellow world leaders had told him that “you’ve got to win” because Mr. Trump would be a disaster for their countries.

He struggled to articulate why he is the best person to defeat Mr. Trump.

Mr. Biden rambled while making the case for his candidacy, launching long-winded recitations of what he has accomplished as president and maintaining that he should have the chance to continue, but never landing on a concise message for why he is the best person to do so.

“I’m determined on running,” he said. “But I think it’s important that I real — I allay fears. I’ve seen — let them see me out there, let me see them out, you know — for the longest time, it was, you know, ‘Biden’s not prepared to sit with us unscripted; Biden is not prepared to’ — and anyway.”

He then began ticking through statistics about the reach of his re-election campaign, and suggested that all the work would be for nothing if he left the race, saying, “It’s awful hard to replace in the near term.” He then veered into talking about his record in the Senate, adding, “Anyway, I’m going to be going around making the case of the things that I think we have to finish and how we can’t afford to lose what we’ve done.”

He said polls showed he was the strongest candidate to beat Mr. Trump, but also conceded for the first time that other Democrats could also do so. “I believe I’m the best qualified to govern and I think I’m the best qualified to win, but there are other people who could beat Trump, too,” he said. “But it’s awful to start from scratch.”

He offered a strong defense of Kamala Harris.

While he vowed to stay in the race, Mr. Biden also on multiple occasions defended the credentials of his vice president. He commended her work defending abortion rights and “her ability to handle almost any issue on the board.” But he also made clear that any polling showing Ms. Harris faring better in a matchup against Mr. Trump would not compel him to step down. “Unless they came back and said there’s no way you can win,” Mr. Biden said. “No one’s saying that.”

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“You earlier explained confidence in your vice president.“ ”Yes.“ ”If your team came back and showed you data that she would fare better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?“ “No, unless they came back and said, ‘There’s no way you can win.’ Me. No one’s saying that. No poll says that.“

Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (5)

July 11, 2024, 10:02 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 10:02 p.m. ET

Erica L. Green

Reporting from Washington

Biden says Harris is qualified to be president, but he vows to remain in the race.

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Biden Mixes Up Trump and Harris

In an attempt to defend Vice President Kamala Harris, President Biden fumbled his answer to a reporter’s question and referred to “Vice President Trump” instead of Vice President Harris.

“What concerns do you have about Vice President Harris’s ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?“ “Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president. So let’s start there. No. 1. The fact is that — the consideration is that I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once, and I will beat him again.”

Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (7)

President Biden said on Thursday that Vice President Kamala Harris was qualified to be president, but pitched himself as the best person to defeat former President Donald J. Trump in November.

During a news conference, Mr. Biden defended Ms. Harris’s readiness to take charge amid reports that he feared she could not beat Mr. Trump even as he made clear that he would not step aside. But in his answer to a question about Ms. Harris’s chances of beating Mr. Trump, he confused the two leaders’ names, committing just the sort of verbal misfire that has unnerved Democrats and prompted them to wonder if she should instead be the nominee.

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, did I think she’s not qualified to be president,” Mr. Biden said. “So let’s start there, No. 1. The fact is that the consideration is that I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once, and I will beat him again.”

Polls in recent weeks have generally showed that Ms. Harris is just as likely, or possibly more likely, to defeat Mr. Trump, and the former president’s campaign has ramped up attacks on her recently.

Following Mr. Biden’s disastrous debate performance two weeks ago, panicked donors, political groups and even allies began to rally around Ms. Harris as a potential placement for him. Ms. Harris has stood behind Mr. Biden’s decision to stay in the race.

The Biden campaign has been quietly testing Ms. Harris’s chances against Mr. Trump this week, with some speculation that the results would determine whether Mr. Biden would consider dropping out of the race.

Asked whether he would reconsider his decision to stay in the race if his team showed him data that Ms. Harris would fare better in a matchup, Mr. Biden repeatedly said he would not drop out of the race.

“No,” he said, “unless they came back and said that there’s no way you could win. No one’s saying that.”

When asked about her qualifications, Mr. Biden pointed to Ms. Harris’s work elevating reproductive rights and praised her “ability to handle almost any issue on the board.”

“This was a hell of a prosecutor,” Mr. Biden said of Ms. Harris, who was the district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California. “She was a first-rate person, and in the Senate she was really good. I wouldn’t have picked her unless I thought she was qualified to be president. From the very beginning. I made no bones about that. She is qualified to be president. That’s why I picked her.”

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July 11, 2024, 10:01 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 10:01 p.m. ET

Nicholas Nehamas

Reporting on the Biden campaign

After Biden’s news conference, doubters and defenders weigh in.

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President Biden entered Thursday night hoping that a steady performance at a news conference with the national press corps would quell dissension among Democrats, some of whom want him out of the race.

But within minutes of his departure from the stage, two more Democratic representatives joined the growing number of party members calling for him to end his re-election campaign against former President Donald J. Trump.

“The 2024 election will define the future of American democracy, and we must put forth the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump’s promised MAGA authoritarianism,” Representative Jim Himes, a moderate Democrat from Connecticut and the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. “I no longer believe that is Joe Biden.”

And Representative Scott Peters of California also argued that Mr. Biden should leave the race, saying, “The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course.”

Later in the evening, Representative Eric Sorensen of Illinois joined their ranks, becoming the 18th Democratic member of either the House or the Senate to call for Mr. Biden to step aside.

More Democrats may defect on Friday, now that members of Congress no longer have to worry about embarrassing the president during the NATO summit that took place in Washington this week. But other Democrats said Mr. Biden’s deft grasp of policy — and the fact that he answered questions for nearly an hour — was heartening, despite awkward moments like a flub in which he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”

“Honestly, could the other guy have done any of that?” Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, one of Mr. Biden’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, said of Mr. Trump in an interview. “Anyone concerned about his ability to lead and govern should be reassured.”

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Highlights from Biden’s News Conference

President Biden held an hourlong news conference with reporters, stumbling early on but remaining defiant in the face of questions about his fitness to continue his campaign.

“The President of the United States, Joe Biden.” “Hey, everybody. Thank you. Please be seated.” “What concerns do you have about Vice President Harris’s ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?” “Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president.” “You mixed up presidents Zelensky and Putin earlier today. Officials here are saying off the record that your decline has become noticeable. Hasn’t this now, frankly, become damaging for America’s standing in the world? Thank you.” “Did you see any damage to our standing in my leading this conference? Have you seen a more successful conference?” “China has to understand that if they are supplying Russia with information and capacity, along with working with North Korea and others to help Russia and armament, that they’re not going to benefit economically. I know Israel well and I support Israel. But this war cabinet is one of the most conservative war cabinets in the history of Israel. And there’s no ultimate answer other than a two-state solution here.” “If your team came back and showed you data that she would fare better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?” “No, unless they came back and said, there’s no way you can win. Me. No one is saying that. No poll says that. I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once and I will beat him again.”

Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (9)

On CNN, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee said Mr. Biden had “convinced a lot of people he should stay in the race.”

“Much (too much) will be made of Pres Biden flubbing names. But his substance in that presser matters,” Patrick Gaspard, the president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, wrote on social media. “His cogent responses on China and Russia. His centering of need for new industrial policy. Even policy points that I might disagree with were robust! Substance matters.”

In a text message, Representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania — a Biden ally — said the president “showed his command of the issues and policy.”

Mr. Biden’s aides, meanwhile, took a victory lap.

Ron Klain, the former White House chief of staff who helped prepare Mr. Biden for the debate that exacerbated questions about the president’s age, wrote that the president had delivered a “strong performance” with a very strong economic message “about lowering prices and growing the economy.”

And on X, Mr. Biden responded to having mixed up his vice president — the former district attorney of San Francisco and the former attorney general of California — and his opponent, Mr. Trump, with a sharp attack.

“By the way: Yes, I know the difference,” Mr. Biden wrote. “One’s a prosecutor, and the other’s a felon.”

Katie Rogers, Neil Vigdor, Robert Jimison and Tim Balk contributed reporting.

July 11, 2024, 9:45 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 9:45 p.m. ET

Robert Jimison

Representative Eric Sorensen of Illinois joined the handful of congressional Democrats calling on Biden to withdraw after his evening news conference. In a statement, he called Biden a “good man” who has spent his life serving the country. “Today I am hopeful President Biden will step aside in his campaign for president,” he said.

July 11, 2024, 9:45 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 9:45 p.m. ET

Robert Jimison

Sorensen is the third House Democrat to call for Biden to step aside since he ended his news conference. This brings the total number of members in the House and Senate calling for the president to drop his bid to 18.

July 11, 2024, 9:38 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 9:38 p.m. ET

Katie Rogers

Reporting on the Biden administration from Washington

“I think Biden was presidential. He hit his accomplishments really well, showed a substantive mastery of foreign policy, for an hour, and a determination to finish the job,” Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat of Delaware and one of Biden’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, tells me. “Honestly, could the other guy have done any of that? Anyone concerned about his ability to lead and govern should be reassured.”

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July 11, 2024, 9:30 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 9:30 p.m. ET

Robert Jimison

Representative Brad Schneider, Democrat of Illinois, who earlier on Thursday called on Biden to exit the race, said in an interview on CNN that Biden had a strong handle of policy issues during the news conference. But he said the circumstances right now for Democrats writ large were untenable. “We can’t have a situation where every day we are holding our breath. Whether it’s a press conference, debate or a rally,” Schneider said.

Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (14)

July 11, 2024, 9:26 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 9:26 p.m. ET

Tim Balk

Representative Scott Peters, Democrat of California, called on President Biden to withdraw from the race after the president's news conference. Peters said in a statement that Democrats were on a "losing course" and "must find a candidate from our deep bench of talent who can defeat Donald Trump." Peters had previously suggested that he was getting close to urging Biden to leave the race.

July 11, 2024, 9:20 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 9:20 p.m. ET

Katie Glueck

A number of senior Democratic elected officials told me today that it is imperative for the party to reach a resolution quickly. It appears that Biden and his fellow elected Democrats are growing further apart on what that resolution should be.

July 11, 2024, 9:00 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 9:00 p.m. ET

Nicholas Nehamas

Reporting on the Biden campaign

President Biden just responded to mixing up Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump in a tweet. “By the way: Yes, I know the difference,” Biden wrote. “One’s a prosecutor, and the other’s a felon.” Many Democrats have said Biden should talk more about Trump’s criminal conviction. Biden is now doing just that as he tries to turn the narrative from his age to attacks on Trump.

By the way: Yes, I know the difference.

One’s a prosecutor, and the other’s a felon. pic.twitter.com/65kYp6m90Z

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 12, 2024

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July 11, 2024, 8:55 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:55 p.m. ET

Katie Glueck

Regardless of whether Biden succeeds, for now, in stemming more high-level defections, interviews across the country this week made clear that the concerns among the Americans he needs to win re-election are real, grave and growing.

July 11, 2024, 8:42 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:42 p.m. ET

Michael Gold

Biden’s final words at his news conference tonight were “Listen to him,” a three-word admonishment to the news media that encapsulates his campaign’s belief that the media has paid comparatively less attention to Trump’s pronouncements and policy planks than to Biden’s every gaffe.

July 11, 2024, 8:41 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:41 p.m. ET

Michael Crowley

In response to my confusion about Biden saying that he did not support the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan — which he initially did following the 2002 American invasion — some readers say he was referring only to the time after the 2011 U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden. “Once we got Bin Laden, we should have moved on,” he said.

July 11, 2024, 8:40 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:40 p.m. ET

Jonathan Swan

People close to Trump are thrilled about Biden’s solid enough performance. It was strong enough, they perceive/hope, to keep his candidacy alive. They foresee a landslide with Biden as their opponent and would rather not have anything happen to introduce risk, change or uncertainty. The status quo is their clear preference, even if they hardly fear Kamala Harris.

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July 11, 2024, 8:37 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:37 p.m. ET

Michael Crowley

It is striking that Biden faced no pointed questions tonight about his support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, as he did in nearly every appearance this past winter and spring. And he certainly soft-pedaled his disputes with Benjamin Netanyahu by saying that Israel was “occasionally was less than cooperative” with U.S. demands.

Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (22)

July 11, 2024, 8:36 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:36 p.m. ET

Michael Grynbaum

On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow praises Biden’s substantive performance, while warning that his elliptical and halting speaking style could be a liability. “There’s a big mismatch between his stylistic presentation and his truly masterful command of the subject matter,” she said.

July 11, 2024, 8:31 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:31 p.m. ET

David E. Sanger

Biden was prepared tonight, but not overprepared with statistics, as he was two weeks ago. He wandered, but didn’t lose the thread. He gave a solid, deep answer on dealing with Israel, and in response to a question I asked him said he was ready to interrupt the relationship between Russia and China — but he declined to describe the strategy.

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July 11, 2024, 8:31 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:31 p.m. ET

Theodore Schleifer

President Biden says his campaign fundraising is going great. In reality, his high-dollar fundraising has cratered, as Reid and I report in this article tonight.

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Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (25)

July 11, 2024, 8:30 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:30 p.m. ET

Michael Grynbaum

Biden answered 11 questions posed by journalists from the following news outlets: Reuters, AFP, CBS, Financial Times, AP, Polish Radio, The New York Times, NPR, Bloomberg, Scripps News and NBC.

July 11, 2024, 8:30 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:30 p.m. ET

Erica L. Green

Biden said that if his staff showed him data that Vice President Harris could beat Donald Trump, he still wouldn’t consider dropping out unless he was shown he couldn’t win. He said no one is saying that to him.

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“You earlier explained confidence in your vice president.“ ”Yes.“ ”If your team came back and showed you data that she would fare better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?“ “No, unless they came back and said, ‘There’s no way you can win.’ Me. No one’s saying that. No poll says that.“

Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (27)

July 11, 2024, 8:30 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:30 p.m. ET

Neil Vigdor

As soon as President Biden finished his news conference, Representative Jim Himes, a moderate Democrat from Connecticut and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, joined the tide of party members calling for him to end his re-election campaign.“The 2024 election will define the future of American democracy, and we must put forth the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump’s promised MAGA authoritarianism,” Himes said in a statement. “I no longer believe that is Joe Biden."

Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (29)

July 11, 2024, 8:28 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:28 p.m. ET

People close to Trump are thrilled about Biden’s solid enough performance. It was strong enough, they hope, to keep his candidacy alive. They foresee a landslide with Biden as their opponent and would rather not have anything happen to introduce risk, change or uncertainty. The status quo is their clear preference, even if they hardly fear Kamala Harris.

After about about an hour, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, ended the news conference and the president left the stage.

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July 11, 2024, 8:27 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:27 p.m. ET

Ken Bensinger

Biden at once is asking us to look at polling numbers of other Democratic officials to suggest he’s the strongest candidate when it comes to beating Trump and, in the next moment, also saying that polls are unreliable and nobody believes them.

July 11, 2024, 8:26 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:26 p.m. ET

Erica L. Green

Biden seems to have accepted the fact that he’s not going to please everyone, saying in response to a question about whether he would take a cognitive test that it’s never going to be enough.

July 11, 2024, 8:26 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:26 p.m. ET

Reid J. Epstein

Reporting on the Biden campaign

“There are other people who could beat Trump, too,” Biden said, but “it’s awful hard to start from scratch.”

July 11, 2024, 8:25 p.m. ET

July 11, 2024, 8:25 p.m. ET

Lisa Lerer

Reporting on the 2024 presidential campaign

Totally, Katie. Biden is a president that really values loyalty and the lack of leaks from his administration. That’s been shifting some since the debate.

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Election Updates: At High-Stakes News Conference, Biden Vows to ‘Finish the Job’ (2024)

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