Joe Biden's July 2024 press conference

Joe Biden's July 2024 press conference was a solo press conference held by United States President Joe Biden on July 11, 2024, at the conclusion of the NATO 2024 Washington summit in Washington, D.C. The press conference was organized by the White House in part as a means to show to the American population, Democratic Party supporters, and European governments that Biden was capable of taking on the demanding role of the U.S. presidency.

Background
The press conference was announced in a White House press briefing on July 8, 2024, by White House national security advisor John Kirby. He stated that Joe Biden would "give a 'big boy' press conference" during the NATO 2024 Washington summit, as a reference to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre being asked for a "big boy press conference" by Bloomberg journalist Justin Sink while questioning if Biden was capable of handling less coordinated situations. The press conference announcement followed the June 27 presidential debate between Biden and former U.S. President Donald Trump that many news outlets and commentators had characterized as a disaster for Biden. Due to the debate, several politicians from Biden's own party have asked for the president to step out of the presidential race. The presidential action requested has occurred before. In U.S. history, several incumbent presidents did announce that they would not be seeking another term in office. One was Harry S. Truman, who had written in 1950 about his decision to not run in 1952. Another one was Lyndon B. Johnson, who had actually announced that he would not run for another term during the election year of 1968.

Prior to his press conference, Biden had inadvertently introduced Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy as "President Putin" for a speech concluding the NATO summit, a mistake which he quickly corrected before letting Zelenskyy speak. However, Biden explained the event to reporters at the solo press conference that he was thinking of Putin at that moment. Biden explained it as follows:"... and now at the very end, I said here, I mean Putin. I said, no, I’m sorry, Zelenskyy”. Then I added five other names."Biden had actually corrected himself and did not say five other names. The "five names" may have been a figure of speech.

Press conference
President Biden began the press conference by condemning Donald Trump's statements about limiting intelligence and funding to NATO, asserting NATO's strength and his commitment to NATO. He reiterated earlier claims that he was the most qualified person to stand for election against Trump in response to questions asking about his thoughts on demands for him to step down as the Democratic candidate in the 2024 presidential election. He cited his administration’s success in creating jobs and in growing the economy.

While answering a question asked by Reuters journalist Jeff Mason on Vice President Kamala Harris's capability for defeating Trump if she became the nominee, Biden defended her and attempted to state that he would not have chosen her if he didn't think she could be a good president. During his response, Biden accidentally referred to her as "Vice President Trump".

He stated that his primary reason for staying in the election was not for his legacy, but to "complete the job" that he started, calling himself the most pro-union U.S. President "in history" while standing against Trump's trickle-down economics and favor towards wealthy classes. During a question asking about if he would not have any more "bad nights" in reference to his June debate performance, he stated that there was no "slowdown" in his presidential accomplishments and rhetorically asked if any other U.S. President had a level of legislative success that matched his progress in three-and-a-half years. Biden paused in the middle of a question due to being interrupted by someone in the room playing a recorded excerpt.

Biden responded to claims about recent schedule and sleep changes by stating, "I have to pace myself a little more", highlighting how he had to adapt to attending about twenty "major events" before claiming that his staff “add[s] things” at the last minute regarding reports about large schedule changes. He claimed that several leaders of European nations never said ‘Joe, don’t run’. Instead, he said that they told him that he had to win the election because he was the most qualified person to stop Ukraine's fall, which he contrasted to many members of his own party who were trying to get him to step down from the election. He also declared that he played a part in getting European nations to withdraw investment from China due to their growing partnership with Russia during their invasion against Ukraine.

Biden stated that he changed his mind from only playing a transitional role as U.S. President during the 2020 presidential election due to the "gravity" of the domestic policy, foreign policy, and economic issues at risk in the 2024 election. He claimed that he was the best politician for this situation due to his “wisdom” earned from his presidency to “get things done" in legislation and claimed that historians agreed that he was "the most legislatively successful" president since Lyndon B. Johnson. As mentioned earlier in this article, Johnson was an incumbent president who had announced during an election year that he would not run for another term.

While responding to questions about uncertainty in the Democratic Party and the Democratic voter base about his ability to win the election, he affirmed that he would engage in more public campaign events and would schedule public visits in swing states so supporters could see his spontaneous speaking ability. He claimed that no election poll or individual told him that he was incapable of re-election, questioning the accuracy of political polls while stating that different polls gave different claims on whether he or Trump was in the lead. He also asserted that contemporary polls were not representative of his re-election chances prior to the Labor Day weekend and that it would be harder for the Democratic Party to win the election if they started a new candidate from "scratch".

Reactions
The Associated Press called the press conference "a test" of Joe Biden's energy and leadership necessary to encourage Democratic and inconclusive voters that his listless and unfocused performance at the earlier June presidential debate was an "outlier". The news outlet remarked on several gaffes made during the conference including his earlier mistake of calling Volodomyr Zelenskyy "President Putin" and referring to his Vice President Kamala Harris as "Vice President Trump", while at the same time acting defiant of many Democratic politicians' calls to step out of the election. AP analyzed that his answers contained much more detail compared to his debate performance, including references to geopolitics and specific numbers, stating that he was better at engaging with questions despite occasional coughing, throat clearing, and hoarse whispering. They noted that the lack of a time limit on each question allowed Biden to tell long stories about his past experiences and reasons to support his re-election and that he talked the most fluently and energetically on topics of foreign policy. The New York Times pointed out, that "Mr. Biden, 81, is hardly the only one in this campaign to mix up names and facts. Mr. Trump, 78, who regularly mangles his sentences, in recent months alone has confused Mr. Biden with Barack Obama, Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, and the leader of Hungary with the leader of Turkey."

Democrats
Connecticut House Democrat Jim Himes released a statement just minutes after the press conference calling him to step down from his campaign. He commended Biden's service to the nation and legacy as a politician and president before expressing his opinion that it would be best for him to preserve his legacy instead of forcing himself to compete with Donald Trump. He feared that Biden was not the strongest candidate to resist Trump's authoritarianism and potential threats to democracy were he to beat Biden.

Illinois Democrat Representative Brad Schneider believed that Biden did "a fine job" and showed initiative when discussing domestic and foreign policy issues. However, he still believed that it was best for Biden to "pass the torch" to younger politicians since the 2024 election against Trump could not stand "a situation where every day we’re holding our breath".

Representatives Scott Peters (D-CA) and Eric Sorensen (D-IL) both called on Biden to step down following the press conference. Peters explained that Biden's list of presidential achievements that he mentioned during the conference did not necessarily "translate" into success for re-election and that Democrats needed to probe their most talented politicians to have the best chance of winning swing states. Sorensen asked that Biden put his "country over party" as he said during the 2020 election.

On the other hand, Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) told fellow Democrats to “get off of our fantasy games" to back Joe Biden, claiming that all the arguments calling for him to step down dissidence only helped Donald Trump. He disparaged Jim Himes' opinion on Biden stepping down and called his constituency "a lot more white and a lot more liberal and a lot more elitist”. He also dismissed Biden's "Vice President Trump" misspeaking saying that he would always prefer Trump as Vice President over ever being president at any point.

Republicans
Republican Ohio Senator J. D. Vance repeated accusations towards the Democratic party and VP Kamala Harris of deliberately trying to conceal Biden's mental acuity, condemning them for forcing America to stick by him from 2020 and only wanting him gone once he became a "political liability" to them.