By Steve Herman
WASHINGTON — At his first solo news conference in eight months, U.S. President Joe Biden spent most of an hour responding to questions about the growing movement within his own Democratic Party to get him to step aside because of concerns he may be in cognitive decline.
"I've taken three significant and intense neurological exams" as recently as February, Biden said. "They say I'm in good shape."
If any of his doctors "think I should have a neurological exam again, I’ll do it," he said.
Aging "creates a little bit of wisdom," added Biden, who is 81, maintaining he could handle the stress of the job for another term.
The president was asked what happened to his promise during the 2020 campaign to be a bridge candidate to a younger generation of Democrats, which was interpreted at the time as indicating he would not run again in 2024.
Biden replied, "What changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited, in terms of the economy, our foreign policy and domestic division."
He also said if former President Donald Trump returns to the White House for a second term, American democracy would be imperiled.
In his responses to questions from about a dozen reporters, Biden touted his accomplishments in handling foreign crises and the economy. But what will remain in the headlines after his latest public remarks will be his response to the biggest crisis he currently faces, which comes from within his own party.
Asked if he would stay in the race if his team presented data indicating Vice President Kamala Harris had a better chance to defeat Trump, the president said he would fight on unless his aides told him "there’s no way you can win." He then dramatically whispered from the lectern: "No poll says that."
"I think it was a good day for Mr. Biden, the best day he’s had in quite some time. Will it change the course of the stream, or will it just be a stone in the stream that diverts the current without fundamentally changing its course? I don’t know," William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and who served as deputy assistant for domestic policy to President Bill Clinton, told VOA.
There were a couple of gaffes during the nearly hourlong event.
He referred to Harris as "Vice President Trump" before saying he had picked the former California senator as his running mate twice because she’s ready to step in as president.
At another point, Biden said, "I’m taking the advice of my commander-in-chief," apparently referring to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As president, Biden himself is the commander-in-chief.
Calls for Biden to drop out have expanded beyond at least 16 Democratic Party members of the House. The prominent actor George Clooney on Wednesday, in an opinion piece in The New York Times, called on Biden to be a hero for democracy again by dropping out of the rematch against the Republican former president.
Clooney, who last month hosted the single largest fundraiser supporting any Democrat ever, said the candidate who appeared at that event was not the Joe Biden of 2016 or 2020, but "the same man we all witnessed at the debate" against Trump on June 27.
Even many of the president’s most prominent supporters have characterized that debate as a disaster for the incumbent. White House and campaign officials have repeatedly insisted that it was just "a bad night" for the veteran politician.
Hours before Thursday’s news conference, introducing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy at a NATO event, Biden announced to the audience, "Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin," referring to the Russian leader who is waging a war against neighbor Ukraine.
"Going to beat President Putin, President Zelenskyy. I am so focused on beating Putin," Biden said while correcting himself. He made light of that mistake when asked about it at the news conference.
Biden’s signature mix-ups were reminiscent of President Ronald Reagan’s White House Rose Garden welcoming in 1982 for Liberian President Samuel Doe. Reagan introduced him as "Chairman Moe."
In a debate two years later with the Democratic Party nominee, Walter Mondale, Reagan appeared lost for words and fumbled with his notes, but he went on in November of 1984 to capture a second term with a landslide victory over Mondale.
Reagan announced in 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease but in the years after his death in 2004, one of his sons and some former officials acknowledged there were clear signs of the president’s cognitive decline in his second term.
Top officials at the United Auto Workers union met on Thursday to discuss their concerns about Biden’s candidacy, the Reuters news agency reported, attributing the information to three sources familiar with the matter.
The 400,000-member union endorsed the Democratic Party incumbent in January. It is especially influential in industrial states, including the swing state of Michigan, which pollsters consider a must-win for Biden if he hopes to be reelected.
"I know he can win Michigan," Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow said of Biden and her home state after the president’s senior advisers earlier Thursday briefed Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill.
More Democrats held off making public assessments of their incumbent's suitability for a second term until after Thursday evening’s presidential news conference and the end of the NATO summit, which Biden hosted in Washington.
Immediately after the press event concluded, another Democratic Party congressman -- Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee -- added his voice to the rising chorus expressing a loss of confidence in Biden’s ability to win reelection.
"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."
After Himes’ statement was released, another Democratic congressman, Scott Peters of California, also called for Biden to exit the race.
"The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course. My conscience requires me to speak up," said Peters in a statement.
Referring to Biden’s several verbal stumbles at the news conference, NPR Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon put it this way in a social media posting while Biden was still talking: "Here’s the problem: even if [Biden’s] verbal slips are quickly corrected and totally understandable, people are listening for them now. Even scoring and numbering them. What used to be dismissed and understood is certainly heard differently."
The president, in response to one reporter on Thursday, said there are others in his party who could beat Trump as well, but this close to next month’s Democratic Party nominating convention and November’s election, "it would be hard to start from scratch."
Forum