President Joe Biden mistakenly called Vice President Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” minutes into his news conference on Thursday night.
At this year’s NATO summit in Washington, D.C., Biden gave his first solo presser of the year.
Amid calls from Democrats, donors and famous supporters for Biden to drop out of the presidential race, Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters, asked the president during Thursday’s gathering: “What concerns do you have about Vice President Harris’ ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?”
“I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president. Do I think she’s not qualified to be president,so let’s start there, number one. I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I beat [Trump] once and I will beat him again.”
Biden added: “There’s a long way to go in this campaign. I’m just gonna keep moving. Keep moving because I’ve got more work to do. We’ve got more work to finish. We’ve made so much progress.”
The president then shifted to talking points on the economy, specifically the more than 800,000 manufacturing and 1.5 million nonfarm jobs created since he took office.
Overall, Biden had a strong performance during the news conference. He drifted off at times but answered questions about economic policy and NATO with extended coherent responses.
David Axelrod, former senior adviser to ex-President Barack Obama and current senior political commentator for CNN, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday night, “The wisdom of doing this news conference at NATO is clear. Shaky on other stuff, the @POTUS is very comfortable on national security issues.”
Newsweek reached out to Biden’s campaign via email for comment on Thursday night.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivers remarks during a meeting at the 2024 NATO summit in Washington, D.C. Biden on Thursday night mistakenly called Vice President Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” minutes into his news conference, but performed well overall.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Thursday night’s conference arrived at a pivotal moment in Biden’s reelection campaign. Since the president’s weak showing against former President Donald Trump at the presidential debate in Atlanta late last month, there have been growing concerns from Democrats about the 81-year-old’s ability to beat Trump and be able to serve another four years as president.
Some Democrats, including 18 in Congress, have called for Biden to step down as the party’s nominee so another prominent Democrat can take his place. But Biden has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race, telling ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview released last week that he will drop out only if God tells him to. Harris, meanwhile, has been floated as a potential replacement for Biden, but she has made it clear that she supports Biden’s candidacy, saying in a recent CBS News interview that she is “proud to be Joe Biden’s running mate.”
Less than an hour before the news conference, Biden made a gaffe during an event to celebrate the Ukraine Compact, a bilateral agreement unifying countries in their support of Ukraine.
When introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden accidentally called the leader of the war-torn country “Putin.” He then corrected himself and said that Zelensky is “going to beat [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin.” When Zelensky took the microphone, he made light of the mistake, saying, “I’m better.” Biden responded, “You’re a hell of a lot better.”
Update 7/11/24, 8:05 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
