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There could be no lower bar, no higher stakes, than President Joe Biden’s prime-time press conference Thursday night.
He barely passed the bar and probably survived until the next day to fight, but the stakes for him and his country remain high.
Yes, there were mistakes and missteps. Even before the press conference, he introduced Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky as “President Putin” at a NATO event, and later, at a press conference, he confused his Vice President Kamala Harris with Donald Trump. But on the scale of Biden’s mistakes, those were just bumps in the road.
Biden mentions ‘anyway’ at least 9 times in press conference
More worrying were the soft whispers, the occasional distant glances, the difficulty in finishing sentences, and the awkward mention that First Lady Jill Biden was angry with him. Still, these moments for Biden were not the jaw-dropping moments we saw in Atlanta two weeks ago.
So, did Biden do enough on the podium to answer questions about his mental and physical abilities to secure his candidacy or the presidency?
President Biden was mocked when he accidentally referred to Ukrainian President Zelensky as “President Putin.” (Photo credit: Contributor/Getty Images | Photo credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | Photo credit: Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)
Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat who sits on the Intelligence Committee, didn’t think so, and within minutes of the press conference, he posted on X that Biden should resign. But the honest answer to whether Biden has fixed his campaign is a disappointing “maybe.”
We now know that there has been at least one conversation between Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, the big Democrats, about Biden’s future. How impressed were they with Biden’s performance? It’s hard to say.
Biden Aides and Democratic Officials Privately Acknowledge That ‘Things Will Get Worse’
The fundamental problem is not solved. With four months to go until Election Day, there is still a good chance that Joe Biden will show up again in the debates, even if we don’t see him at the press conference on Thursday.
The Biden team would certainly like to believe that this was a test Biden passed and that we should all turn the page on this scandal. But that is unlikely to happen, largely because Biden himself and his mental state are still the main story.
It was significant that at the presidential press conference held only a few months ago, there was barely any news about anything. different The question is whether the President is fit to perform his duties.
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In a normal situation, Biden would have once again disparaged Israel by saying he wished Israel’s war cabinet had listened to him more often when asked whether he could have done differently in response to the Gaza conflict.
But that stupid answer, like all the others he gave, was completely unimportant. No one paid attention to the content of the words, only whether the President of the United States could successfully speak in order.
The political focus of the country cannot be on whether its most powerful leader is having a good day or a bad day, not for the next four months, much less for the next five years.
It is not sustainable. The political focus of the country cannot be on whether the most powerful leader is having a good day or a bad day. Not for the next four months, and certainly not for the next five years. But that is still what we are seeing.
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For Democrats, this was the worst Biden could have done. Not bad enough to open the floodgates for calls for his resignation, but not good enough to stop Americans from wondering and worrying about the president’s condition.
So we’re stuck right where we were before Biden took the stage. Even if he stopped the immediate bleeding—and it’s not entirely clear if he did—he’s still politically deeply wounded, if not fatally.
Joe Biden has always been adamant in his response to growing concerns about his age and health: “Watch me.” Well, Mr. President, we watch. In fact, that’s all we watch, that’s all we can see, and there’s real reason to believe that’s never, ever going to change.
Click here to read more from DAVID MARCUS.
