Biden’s double bumbles as he faces rare grilling
US President Joe Biden has confused his Vice-President Kamala Harris with Donald Trump, in a second embarrassing gaffe as he fights to stay in the US presidential race.
The mistake came early in a crucial solo news conference intended to bolster the Democratic candidate’s standing in the race to win the White House again.
Asked about his view of Harris’s ability to beat Trump if she became the official candidate, Biden said: “I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice-president if I didn’t think she was qualified to be president.”
He didn’t appear to pick up on the mistake, or make any effort to correct it, but then issued a social media post acknowledging what he had said.
It followed a similar stumble just hours before at the NATO summit in Washington when he introduced Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”.
“Now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said, drawing gasps from those in the room.
“Going to beat President Putin, President Zelensky. I am so focused on beating Putin,” he said while correcting himself.
You might like
Biden’s repeated gaffes come as a growing number of Democrats call on him to drop out as the party’s presidential nominee.
Biden’s re-election campaign has been on the ropes for two weeks, since the 81-year-old incumbent’s stumbling performance against Trump, his 78-year-old Republican rival, raised fresh questions about his age and mental acuity – concerns that voters had long raised in public opinion polls.
So far, 13 of the 213 Democrats in the House and one of the Senate’s 51 Democrats have appealed publicly to the president to withdraw from the race.
Top officials at the United Auto Workers union met on Thursday to discuss their concerns with his candidacy, three sources familiar with the matter said, after endorsing Biden in January. The 400,000-member union has a big presence in industrial states such as Michigan that Biden will need to carry to win re-election.
During his solo news conference on Thursday night, Biden was grilled on a wide range of topics – including his fitness for another four years in the White House.
“Am I getting the job done? Can you name me somebody who has gotten more major piece of legislation passed in 3½ years?” he said.
“I created 2000 jobs just last week. If I slow down, I can’t get the job done. That is a sign that I shouldn’t be doing it. There is no indication of that yet. None!”
Stay informed, daily
Biden’s campaign has been on the ropes for two weeks, since his poor debate performance against Trump, his 78-year-old Republican rival.
Top advisers have met Senate Democrats to try to quell further defections. Biden’s campaign argued that the debate has not dramatically shifted the race, even as it laid out a narrow path to re-election that acknowledged that it faced an uphill climb in many states he won in 2020.
Before the news conference, four more Democrats in the House of Representatives called on Biden to end his campaign: Brad Schneider of Illinois, Greg Stanton of Arizona, Ed Case of Hawaii, and Hillary Scholten of Michigan.
“For our country’s sake, it is time for the President to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders,” Stanton said in a prepared statement.
Others stopped short of calling for Biden to drop out, even as they questioned his ability to lead the country.
“I doubt the President’s judgment about his health, his fitness to do the job, and whether he is the one making important decisions about our country, rather than unelected advisers,” Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez said.
None of the party’s leaders in Congress have called for Biden to end his candidacy, though former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday declined to say he should stay in the race.
Some Senate Democrats said they were still uncertain about Biden’s ability to win after meeting with Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and other top aides.
The campaign has commissioned a survey to test how Vice President Kamala Harris would fare if she replaced Biden at the top of the ticket, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week found Harris would fare no better than Biden if she were the Democratic nominee, as both were statistically tied with Trump.
The New York Times reported that some long-time advisers were considering ways to convince him to drop his reelection bid, while NBC News reported that some campaign staffers thought he stood no chance of winning the election.
Biden has seen his fundraising advantage over Trump disappear in recent months, and some high-profile Democratic donors, including actor George Clooney, have called on him to step aside.
Congressional Democrats will be watching closely when Biden fields questions from the White House press corps.
At his first formal solo news conference since November 2023, Biden will have to speak on a wide range of topics – including likely questions on whether his doctors have found evidence of mental decline.
– with AAP
