President Joe Biden acknowledged disappointments, missteps and frustrations with Israel’s hard-right government but also pointed to increasing hopes of a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, which has devastated Gaza’s people.
Speaking in a much-watched news conference at the site of the just ended NATO summit, the president called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government the most conservative Israeli administration he has experienced and said he urged that country’s leaders not to follow the example that the U.S. set against al-Qaida and other extremist militant groups.
“Don’t think that’s what you should be doing, doubling down,” he said he told them.
Biden said he had been “disappointed” that his order for the U.S. military to build a sea pier to bring aid to Gaza, along with some other efforts, “have not succeeded as well.”
But Biden said Israel and Hamas have now agreed to the broad terms of a deal to pause fighting and free hostages. Mediators are working on gaps in agreement, he said.
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said he hopes Biden will step away from the campaign.
Himes said in a post on the social platform X immediately after the president’s news conference that it has been “the honor of my career” to work with Biden, but “the 2024 campaign 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 he no longer believes that person is Joe Biden “and I hope that, as he has throughout a lifetime of public service, he will continue to put our nation first, and as he promised, make way for a new generation of leaders.”
More than a dozen House Democrats have now called for Biden to leave the campaign. Peter Welch of Vermont is the only Democratic senator to say he should step aside.
Biden has wrapped up a nearly hourlong news conference in which he batted away questions about his age and fitness for office, while defending his record.
The president opened with an eight-minute statement, largely about the NATO summit he hosted in Washington, before taking reporters’ questions.
Biden called on reporters from 10 news organizations. He was asked about Democrats calling on him to drop his reelection bid, Vice President Kamala Harris and foreign policy.
The president insisted that he has no plans to drop out to make room for Vice President Kamala Harris or anyone else.
Asked if he would considering bowing out before November if shown data that Harris could perform better against Trump, Biden responded, “No, unless they came back and said, ‘There’s no way you can win.’”
“No one’s saying that,” Biden said. “No poll says that.”
He conceded that there are probably other candidates “who can beat Trump” but pointed to his campaign’s strong fundraising and operations in battleground states, noting that anyone other than him would have “to start from scratch.”
None of the nine Democratic governors present at the National Governors Association conference remained around a TV watching as Biden’s news conference entered its final stretch.
Only a handful of party staffers were still nearby as the event wound down. The rest of the group left to mingle in the courtyard of the Salt Lake City hotel.
Pressed about if he would undergo cognitive testing, Biden reiterated that his job as president is proof of his mental acuity.
The president said he took three “significant and intense neurological exams” done by a neurologist, most recently in February. He added that he is “tested every single day” as he tackles the challenges of the White House.
Biden said that if his doctors say they “think I should have a neurological exam again, I’ll do it,” but “no one’s suggesting that to me now.”
The president is reiterating his determination to run for reelection, despite the growing number of Democratic lawmakers and others who are calling for him to step aside.
“I think it’s important that I allay fears,” he said, referring to campaign appearances on Friday in Detroit and next week in Texas and Nevada.
“I gotta finish this job,” he said. “I gotta finish this job, because there’s so much at stake.”
Some Democratic governors are watching the president’s press conference in a private viewing during a meeting of the National Governors Association.
A couple of groans could be heard as Hawaii Gov. Josh Green stepped outside during the news conference. It wasn’t immediately clear what they were responding to.
Green told The Associated Press that he supports the president’s choice to run.
“My admiration and love for the president is not going to wane no matter how many ‘moments’ he has,” Green said. The governor said the state loves him because of what he did to help after the Maui fire.
Biden’s news conference has shifted largely from questions about whether he’s up to continuing his reelection campaign to foreign policy.
“There isn’t any world leader I’m not prepared to deal with,” the president said.
He also vowed to maintain a hard line against Russian President Vladimir Putin: “If we allow Russia to succeed in Ukraine, they’re not stopping in Ukraine.”
Journalists at Biden’s news conference charged from the gate with questions about his health, showing no hesitation at tackling the issue head-on.
The first five questioners all asked something about his health — some by itself, some embedded in questions about other things.
Finally, 15 minutes in, a reporter — a non-American — asked about European concerns if Donald Trump were to resume the presidency.
For his part, Biden answered some of the health questions emphatically but, on others, shifted the answers to focusing on the economy, the success of the NATO conference and other non-health-related topics.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee posted on his social media network a video clip of when Biden said “Vice President Trump.”
Trump added sarcastically at the end: “Great job, Joe!”
Biden said the best way to reassure anyone who is concerned about him having another “bad night” is “the way I assure myself and that is, ‘Am I getting the job done.’”
The president said “there’s no indication yet” that he’s slowing down on that front.
Biden had explained his poor debate performance against Trump last month by saying he had a “bad night.”
Biden is denying that he previously said he needs to cut back on his schedule to get to bed by 8 p.m.
The president told reporters that, in previous conversations, what he meant was “it’d be smarter to pace myself a little bit.”
He suggested that working from early in the morning until near midnight was probably not a great idea and suggested that evening fundraisers for his reelection campaign could begin an hour or two earlier going forward.
Biden also vowed that, ahead of his second debate with Trump in September, “I’m not going to be traveling 15 time zones.”
“Pace myself. Pace myself,” he said.
Asked whether the focus on his flubs and the pressure to drop out of the race has become damaging for the United States, Biden pushed back on the question.
“Have you seen a more successful conference?” he asked. “What do you think?”
Biden did not address the question, but he asserted that the just-concluded NATO summit was “the most successful conference I attended in a long time.”
President Joe Biden was asked during Thursday’s news conference how it might hurt his place in the history books if he were to keep running and lose to Trump in November — but insisted he’s not concerned. Instead, he said, his focus is continuing four more years of policies to grow the economy and help the middle class.
“I’m not in this for my legacy,” Biden said. “I’m in this to complete the job I started.”
The first question of Biden’s press conference was about him losing support among many of his fellow Democrats and key unions, and about Vice President Kamala Harris possibly replacing him on the ticket.
Biden was at first defiant, saying the “UAW endorsed me, but go ahead,” meaning the United Autoworkers.
But then he flubbed the answer, mixing up Harris and Trump: “I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if she wasn’t qualified.”
President Joe Biden opened his news conference by talking about NATO and security for Ukraine. He then shifted to discussing inflation and border security in the U.S., as well as negotiations for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
He then began taking reporters’ questions.
An earlier version of this article is posted below.
President Joe Biden’s ability to run for reelection faced crucial tests Thursday as he prepared for questions at a highly anticipated press conference and his team met privately with skeptical senators on Capitol Hill. The outreach came even as more House Democrats called for him to exit the race.
The Biden campaign laid out what it sees as its path to keeping the White House in a new memo, saying that winning the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan is the “clearest pathway” to victory. And it declared no other Democrat would do better against Republican Donald Trump. Biden will head to Detroit on Friday.
It all comes as Democrats are facing an intractable problem. Top donors, supporters and key lawmakers are doubtful of Biden’s abilities to carry on his reelection bid after his recent debate performance, but the hard-fighting 81-year-old president refuses to give up as he prepares to take on Trump in a rematch.
“There is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump,” said the memo from campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez that was obtained by The Associated Press.
The memo sought to brush back “hypothetical polling of alternative nominees ” as unreliable and it said such surveys “do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter.”
Meanwhile, the campaign has been quietly surveying voters on Vice President Kamala Harris to determine how she’s viewed among the electorate, according to two people with knowledge of the campaign who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to talk about internal matters.
The people said the polling was not necessarily to show that she could be the nominee in Biden’s place, but rather to better understand how she’s viewed. The research came after Trump stepped up his attacks against Harris following the debate, according to another person familiar with the effort. The survey was first reported by The New York Times.
Thursday is pivotal. Biden must show skeptics during his whirlwind day with world leaders at NATO, and the evening press conference that he is up for another four years. Voters are watching, and elected officials are deciding whether to press for another choice.
Senators, in particular, are anxious to see Biden himself, and a midday huddle with his campaign team brought little clarity about the path forward.
As the day unfolded, Rep. Hillary Scholten, whose district is in the battleground state of Michigan, became the 10th House Democrat to call on Biden not to run for reelection. As the day went on more House Democrats joined including Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois, Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona and Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii, bringing the number of House Democrats to a dozen. In the Senate, only Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, has so far called for Biden to step out of the race.
Scholten, a first-term Democrat, told The Detroit News that people can’t “unsee” Biden’s terrible debate performance and said in a statement that “it’s time to pass the torch.”
Top leaders in Congress have largely kept quiet as they meet privately with other lawmakers. But House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi opened the door this week to a continued conversation about Biden’s political future when she publicly said “it’s up to the president” to decide what to do — even though Biden had already emphatically told Congress he was staying in the race.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said talks among lawmakers are “candid, comprehensive and clear-eyed” as they discuss the path ahead.
Jeffries, who supports Biden and the Democratic ticket, said House and Senate Democrats remain unified on the agenda ahead that includes growing the middle class, fighting for reproductive rights and pushing back against Trump and the far-right Project 2025 agenda.
While Biden has expressed confidence in his chances, his campaign on Thursday acknowledged he is behind, and a growing number of the president’s aides in the White House and the campaign privately harbor doubts that the president can turn things around.
But they’re taking their cues from Biden, expressing that he is in 100% unless and until he isn’t, and there appears to be no organized internal effort to persuade the president to step aside. His allies were well aware heading into the week there would be more calls for him to step down, and they were prepared for it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited Biden’s team to meet with senators privately at the lunch hour to discuss concerns and the path forward, but some senators groused they would prefer to hear from the president himself.
The 90-minute conversation with the president’s team, which one person said included no new data, polling or game plan on how Biden would beat Trump, did not appear to change senators’ minds. The person was granted anonymity to discuss the closed door session.
The meeting was frank, angry at times and also somewhat painful, since many in the room know and love Biden, said one senator who requested anonymity to discuss the private briefing. Senators confronted the advisers over Biden’s performance at the debate and the effect on Senate races this year
One Democrat, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, said afterward, “My belief is that the president can win, but he’s got to be able to go out and answer voters’ concerns. He’s got to be able to talk to voters directly over the next few day.”
At the same time, influential senators are standing strongly with Biden, leaving the party at an impasse.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, told AP he thinks Biden “is going to win this election. I think he has a chance to win it big.”
Sanders said he has been publicly critical of the campaign, and said Biden needs to talk more about the future and his plans for the country. “As we come closer to Election Day, the choices are very clear,” he said.
The fresh emphasis on the “blue wall” states by the campaign, which has heavily invested in other battlegrounds such as Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia, acknowledges that the path to defeating Trump in November is narrowing, even as the team insists the Sun Belt states are “not out of reach.”
Though senior campaign aides write in the memo that Biden could clinch 270 electoral votes in a number of ways, it also says those three states are critical and that is why Biden has prioritized the areas in his recent travels. including the upcoming trip to Michigan. He went to Madison, Wisconsin; Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania over the weekend.
It acknowledges “real” movement in the race, but argues that it was not a “sea change.”
Campaign leaders say they want to continue touting Biden’s achievements in office, drawing a contrast with Trump and his policies, and redoubling their grassroots efforts to engage voters — which were their goals anyway before the disastrous June 27 debate that left in question Biden’s cognitive capabilities and fitness to serve. Their internal research suggests that voters will make their decisions based on policies and issues, rather than Biden’s age, O’Malley Dillon and Rodriguez contend.
Polls conducted after the debate have largely agreed that Democrats nationwide have doubts about Biden’s ability to lead the ticket in November.
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Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Colleen Long, Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking, Farnoush Amiri and Linley Sanders contributed to this report.
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