Joe Biden has batted away questions about his fitness for office in a highly-anticipated press conference, saying he is the most qualified person to run for United States president, after mistakenly referring to the Ukrainian leader as “President Putin” and rival Donald Trump as “vice-president”.
Biden addressed reporters on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington DC, in what has been billed as a high-stakes news conference on Friday morning (AEST) to ease fears about his age and mental acuity.
At his first formal solo news conference since November 2023, Biden spoke extemporaneously on a wide range of topics.
To a question about what concern he has about Vice-President Kamala Harris’s ability to beat Donald Trump if she ran for the top job, Biden replied: “I wouldn’t have picked Vice-President Trump to be vice-president if I didn’t think she was qualified to be president”.
“I think I am the most qualified person to run for President. I beat him once and I will beat him again,” he added.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy laughs after being mistakenly introduced as “President Putin” by US President Joe Biden during the NATO Summit in Washington. Source: EPA / EPA
Earlier, Biden corrected his error when he referred to Vladimir Putin while introducing Volodymr Zelenskyy to the podium, in a gaffe that drew gasps from the audience in the media room.
“And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said, referring to Zelenskyy, before realising his error and correcting himself.
“Going to beat President Putin, President Zelenskyy. I am so focused on beating Putin,” Biden added.
Biden is facing calls by members of his own party to drop out of the race ahead of this year’s presidential election.
Several White House officials, including press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, have jokingly referred to the press conference as his “boy boy press conference”, referencing a phrase used in a Bloomberg media report.
“And you’ll certainly hear from the president on Thursday when he gives his press conference — his “big boy” press conference,” she said.
Biden’s re-election campaign has been on the ropes for two weeks, since the 81-year-old incumbent’s stumbling debate performance against former US president Donald Trump, his 78-year-old Republican rival, raised fresh questions about his age and mental acuity – concerns that voters had long raised in public opinion polls.
Peter Welch on Wednesday evening become the first Democratic US senator to call on Biden to step aside, joining of the House of Representatives who have appealed to the president to withdraw from the race.
Welch, a first-term senator from Vermont, said Biden should end his candidacy “for the good of the country”.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week found Biden and Trump tied at 40 per cent each. Other opinion polls have found Trump widening his lead over Biden.
