Biden calls Kamala Harris ‘Vice President Trump’ at top of error-laden ‘big boy’ press conference: ‘Qualified to be president’

WASHINGTON — President Biden stunned journalists Thursday by confusing Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump at a closely watched press conference â€” shortly after he mixed up Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky at a different event.

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if I think she’s not qualified to be president,” the 81-year-old said to gasps and groans from journalists at the annual NATO summit.

Biden spoke with a soft, raspy voice, frequently paused to cough, and at points lost his train of thought at what his aides had promoted as a “big boy press conference” at Washington’s Convention Center.

The event had been called to dispel mounting Democratic clamor for Biden to step aside after a confused June 27 debate against Trump — but the commander in chief ended up compounding those concerns by making contradictory remarks, forgetting questions and giving rambling answers that didn’t directly address the subject he had been asked about.

Trump, the 78-year-old presumptive Republican nominee, quickly ridiculed his successor in a statement on social media.

“Crooked Joe begins his ‘Big Boy’ Press Conference with, ‘I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, though I think she was not qualified to be president.’ Great job, Joe!” the ex-president wrote.

Asked for his thoughts on Trump using the gaffe to deride him, Biden gave a confusing three-word response: “Listen to him.”

In another concerning moment, Biden could not remember the correct title of Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, the military’s Chief of the Joint Staff, saying he would “listen to his commander in chief” before correcting himself to the still inaccurate “chief of staff of the military.”

The president also struggled to say the word “neurologist” while claiming he wouldn’t seek another cognitive exam unless doctors asked for one — as medical pundits say he may have Parkinson’s disease or a related condition.

Biden claimed he had last seen his neurologist, Dr. Kevin Cannard, in February, though his press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the visit was in January.

The president also made a number of other factual errors, at one point incorrectly indicating that China had fewer than one billion people and confusing that country with another American adversary, Russia.

The 59-minute event featured questions from 10 reporters selected in advance by the White House press office, plus one shouted question at the end from Peter Alexander of NBC News, and was closely watched by Democrats weighing whether to join calls for Biden to step aside.

Taking the stage almost an hour late, after the press conference start time had already been pushed back 60 minutes, and sticking closely to teleprompters for a seven-and-a-half-minute opening statement, the president told reporters he was “catching hell from my wife” because his staff “add things” to his schedule.

Biden also denied reports last week that he told Democratic governors that he intended not to do events after 8 p.m. to avoid embarrassing stumbles — saying it was “not true” and that he was instead trying to “pace” himself better.

What to know about the fallout from President Biden’s debate performance:

• President Biden’s poor performance in the first 2024 presidential debate left some Democrats unsure of his fitness for office and future as the party’s candidate.
• Biden told a crowd at a North Carolina rally the day after the debate that he doesn’t “debate as well as I used to” — but insisted that he can still “do this job.”
• The New York Times editorial board called on the president to serve the country by dropping out of the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a similar editorial a day later.
• In a pre-taped interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden claimed that his “bad episode” at the debate was the result of a cold and not any cognitive issues.
• Biden has rejected calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats, insisting to Stephanopoulos that he is the most qualified to win the election. At a Wisconsin rally, he declared that he is “running and going to win again.”
• Ten congressional Democrats have joined in calling for Biden’s exit from the race. Former Biden supporter George Clooney echoed these calls in an op-ed published in the New York Times just weeks after he helped lead a record-breaking fundraiser for the Democrat.
• Democratic voters have continued to raise concerns about Biden’s nomination since the debate, with speculations and suggestions for replacement nominees running rampant.

“My schedule has been full bore” since the debate, he argued while insisting that he plans to remain in the race and follow through with his rematch against Trump on Nov. 5.

“The campaign hasn’t really started, it hasn’t started in earnest yet,” the president said hopefully — at one point asking reporters: “How accurate does anyone think the polls are these days?”

Despite painting Trump as a threat to democracy, Biden told reporters he would not step aside amid tanking support from his party. Still, he said Harris could handle taking his place.

“The way she’s dealing with issues – almost any issue on board. [She] was a hell of a prosecutor,” he said. “I said she’s qualified to be president at the very beginning — she’s qualified to be president.”

If delegates to the Democratic National Convention want to support a different candidate at the Aug. 19-22 event in Chicago, they “are free to do whatever they want,” Biden said, before adding in a whisper, “that’s not going to happen.”

The DNC currently is set to nominate Biden via virtual roll call before Aug. 7 so that the Democratic ticket qualifies for the Ohio ballot — possibly foreclosing a convention floor fight.

Biden vowed he would not relinquish the top job because of the “gravity” of the challenges facing the country and insisted that he wouldn’t leave the race unless he was told he couldn’t win against Trump, another possibility he said would not happen.

“I’m determined on running but I think it’s important that I allay fears by letting them see me out there,” Biden said, later adding, “There is so much we can do still and I’m determined to get it done.”

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

Moments after the press conference ended, a 15th House Democrat said it was time for Biden to retire.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said “we must put forth the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump’s promised authoritarianism” and “I no longer believe that is Joe Biden, and I hope that… he will continue to put our nation first.”

Fourteen House Democrats and one Democratic senator previously called on Biden to relinquish the presumptive nomination.

With polls showing Biden’s support cratering since the debate as fellow Democrats express fear of a Trump landslide, Thursday marked the president’s first time formally facing a room full of reporters in Washington since November 2022 and his first extended Q&A session with journalists since the debacle at the CNN forum in Atlanta. 

“I feel like the narrative needs to change. So either Dems need to get behind Biden or he needs to step aside. But we are losing time,” a Democratic source close to the White House told The Post before the press conference.

“His press conference is another make-or-break moment.”

Let’s break down Clooney’s role in Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign

• George Clooney has played a role in Democratic fundraising since Barack Obama’s 2012 run, including leading a benefit for former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020 and another in June 2024.
• Clooney, joined by actresses Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, helped Biden take in a record $30 million-plus at a star-studded fundraising event in New York City just last month.
• Just weeks later, Clooney turned on Biden and published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the 81-year-old to leave the race following his atrocious debate appearance.
• Clooney wrote that Biden “cannot win” in November, adding that the president is not the man he used to know, but rather “the same man we all witnessed at the debate.” The actor even said that “every senator and Congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private” agrees that Biden must step down.
• Donald Trump blasted Clooney for his comments, telling him to “get out of politics and go back to TV,” and said the actor had “turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”
• A report also revealed that Obama knew ahead of time what Clooney planned to write and did not object to the op-ed.

Jean-Pierre repeatedly referred to the event as a “big boy” press conference, irking some fellow West Wing staffers, who viewed it as infantilizing the commander in chief.

Although polls have long shown that an overwhelming percentage of voters believe Biden is too old for another term, Democratic officeholders have increasingly agreed following the debate, in which the incumbent made puzzling remarks, including that he “finally beat Medicare.”

Rep. Hillary Scholten of Michigan on Thursday morning became the 10th House Democrat to publicly call for Biden to “step aside from the presidential race and allow a new leader to step up” — after Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont on Wednesday evening became the first Democrat from the upper chamber to ask Biden to call it quits, citing “valid questions” about his cognitive fitness.

Scholten was joined later Thursday by Reps. Brad Schneider of Illinois, Ed Case of Hawaii, Greg Stanton of Arizona, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington — the last of whom called on Biden to resign the presidency rather than serve out the next six months as a lame duck should he drop out.

Reps. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Mike Quigley of Illinois, Angie Craig of Minnesota, Adam Smith of Washington, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Pat Ryan of New York and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon previously asked Biden to exit the race.

Harris, 59, is the most likely replacement candidate should Biden step aside, though many of her critics doubt she would perform any better than Biden due to even lower approval ratings.

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