President Joe Biden held an unscripted solo news conference following the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., today. Biden’s last solo news conference was during the APEC summit in San Francisco on November 15, 2023.
After remarks that lasted around seven minutes, Biden stated he was given a list of people to call on, with Reuters White House Correspondent Jeff Mason being called on first. Mason asked Biden about his political future, mentioning the Reuters report about United Auto Workers (UAW) union President Shawn Fain meeting with the union’s executive board to discuss Biden’s ability to defeat former President Donald Trump. Biden interjected, stating, “UAW just endorsed me, but go ahead.” Mason finished his question, asking, “What concerns do you have about vice president Harris’ ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket.”
Biden’s verbatim response to Mason was the following:
Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she’s not qualified to be president, so lets start there, number one. The fact is that the consideration is that I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president, I beat him once, and I’ll beat him again.
Secondly, the idea I served in the Senate a long time, the idea that senators and congressmen running for office worry about the ticket is not unusual, and I might add there are at least five presidents running or incumbent presidents who had lower number than I have now, later in the campaign, so there’s a long way to go in this campaign, and so I, I’m just going to keep moving, keep moving and because, look I got more work to do, we got more work to finish, there’s so much, we made so much progress, think about it, think about where we are economically relative to the rest of the world.
Name me a world leader who wouldn’t want to trade places with our economy, we created over 800,000 manufacturing jobs, 1.5 million, I mean, so things are moving, we got more to go, working class people still have need help, corporate greed is still at large, there, prices, corporate profits have doubled since the pandemic, they’re coming down, and so I’m optimistic about where things are going.
AFP’s Danny Kemp asked Biden about a speaking mistake during the NATO summit, starting his question by asking, “Um, thank you Mr. President, um, I wanted to ask you, um, about your uh, you mixed up, uh, Presidents Zelensky and Putin earlier today, um…” With Biden laughing in response, Kemp continued, stating key U.S. allies had to step in and make excuses for Biden. He finished his question, “Officials here are saying off the record that your decline has become noticeable, hasn’t this now frankly become damaging for America’s standing in the world? Thank you.”
Biden responded to Kemp, saying his alleged decline did not effect the success of the NATO summit, stating:
Did you see any damage of our standing my leading this conference? Have you seen a more successful conference? What do you think? And the Putin piece I was talking about Putin and I said “and now” at the very end I said “here I mean Putin” I said “no I’m sorry Zelensky” and then I added five other names. Look guys, the idea anybody suggests, that, that we haven’t had an incredibly successful conference — How many times did you hear in that conference, I know it sounds too self serving but other leaders heads of state in thanking me saying “the reason were together is because of Biden, because Biden did the following,” look folks this is, well anyway, I, I thought it was the most successful conference I’ve attended in a long time, and find me a world leader who didn’t think it was.
As Chief White House Correspondent for CBS News Nancy Cordes questioned Biden, she noted that, unlike other instances in history of presidential candidates facing challenges during a re-election campaign, Biden is facing challenges from his “friends, supporters, people who think you’ve done a great job over the past four years.” Cordes continued, asking Biden about the possibility of Vice President Kamala Harris serving as president:
As a follow up, sir, you mentioned that your vice president, Kamala Harris, would be ready to serve on day one. Can you elaborate on that, what is it about her attributes and her accomplishments over the last four years that make her ready to serve on day one if necessary?
Biden responded, mentioning Harris’ policy positions, her record as a prosecutor, and her time in the U.S. Senate as reasons he believes she is qualified to serve as president, stating:
I wouldn’t have picked her unless I thought she was qualified to be president. From the very beginning, I made no bones about that, she is qualified to be president, that’s why I picked her.
Scripps News Specialty Reporter Haley Bull asked Biden if he would reconsider his candidacy if his team showed him data that Harris would fair better against Trump:
You earlier explained confidence in your vice president, if your team came back and showed you data that she would fair better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?
Biden responded, “No unless they came back and said there’s no way you can win, me,” and whispered, “no one’s saying that, no poll says that, okay thank.”
After the final question, a reporter asked Biden about his response to Mason’s first question, when he referred to Harris as “Vice President Trump,” responding with “Listen to him.”
Trump responded to Biden’s mistake, stating on Truth Social, “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!”
