Biden confuses Harris for Trump, Zelensky for Putin as calls to end his campaign grow

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice-President Trump to be vice-president – did I think she’s not qualified to be president?” Biden said. “So let’s start there. Number one, the fact is that the consideration is that I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president.”

Biden subsequently played down his verbal miscues, pointing to world leaders who had praised the Nato conference as successful.

But the press conference was a crucial test for Biden’s teetering campaign, and perhaps a final chance for the beleaguered president to demonstrate his competence and acuity before world leaders and lawmakers departed Washington.

His misstatements followed reporting earlier Thursday by The New York Times that several long-time advisers to the president were discussing ways to persuade Biden, 81, to exit the race – and that his campaign is polling how Harris would fare against Trump if she were to take over the top of the ticket.

Spokespeople for Biden insisted his team remained behind him, but the signal that the president’s own confidants may be joining the chorus of outside lawmakers, donors, and strategists calling on Biden to exit the race amounted to a potentially terminal blow after a bruising week.

Biden repeatedly signalled his steadfast intention to stay in the race, despite the mounting calls on him to step aside.

“I’m not in this for my legacy. I’m in this to complete the job I started,” Biden said.

He also brushed aside concerns voiced by his allies that his mental and physical decline is irreversible due to his advanced age.

“If I slow down and can’t get the job done, that’s a sign I shouldn’t be doing it, but there’s no indication of that yet, none,” Biden said.

The president said his schedule had been “full-bore” and that he needed to pace himself, while noting his staff added lots of events to his schedule. But he said he compared favourably to Trump, mocking his opponent’s proclivity for playing golf.

“What I said was, instead of my – every day starting at seven and going to bed at midnight, what I said was, it’d be smarter for me to pace myself a little more,” Biden said.

“Where’s Trump been? Riding around on his golf cart? Filling out his scorecard before he hits the ball?” he added.

Trump lampooned Biden’s mistake in a post on his social media site Truth Social, writing: “Great job, Joe!”

Top White House and campaign officials were dispatched to Capitol Hill on Thursday in a bid to shore up wary lawmakers. Many trickled out of a luncheon for Democratic senators declining to answer questions about the president posed by reporters.

The huddle came a day after two of Biden’s closest congressional allies – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – appeared to be nudging Biden toward the door.

Pelosi told MSNBC that Biden, who for days has flatly declared his intention to remain in the race, needed to decide “if he is going to run.” Axios reported that Schumer privately signalled to donors he was open to dumping Biden, though the New York senator subsequently said he backs the president.

Other former Biden allies were less restrained. Actor George Clooney called on the president to exit the race just weeks after co-hosting a US$30 million fundraiser for the president. On Capitol Hill, more than a dozen Democrats, including Vermont Senator Peter Welch, said Biden should step aside even before the press conference.

Two-thirds of Americans, including a majority of Biden’s own supporters, want the president to end his bid, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, even though he was essentially running neck-and-neck with his Republican opponent. Some 85 per cent of those surveyed said Biden was too old for a second term.

And Biden drew further fire after a Milwaukee radio station said host Earl Ingram – who previously acknowledged using questions provided by the president’s campaign – had edited out remarks in which he touted having “more blacks in my administration than any other president”. The station said Biden’s campaign asked to have the segments removed.

Hopeful messaging from Biden’s campaign did not appear to stem the bleeding. After some lawmakers implored Biden’s team to explain how his campaign remained viable, top advisers released a memo calling the contest “a margin-of-error race” in battleground states and saying there is “no indication” another Democrat would run better against the Republican.

The document said Biden still has a path to victory through the so-called “Blue Wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Biden’s performance at the Nato summit also did little to stop the torrent of bad news.

Allies described Biden as livelier and more engaged than at recent gatherings of world leaders. New UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended Biden’s abilities, telling the BBC the US president was “on good form” in their White House meeting Wednesday.

Despite the mounting pressure on Biden, critics have few options to force him from atop the ticket.

Biden holds a commanding delegate lead ahead of the Democratic convention in August. He has repeatedly said he has no interest in stepping aside, and chided fellow party members to cease their push to find a new nominee, calling it a betrayal of the will of primary voters.

The president will continue his rescue mission in the coming days, starting with a trip Friday to Detroit for a campaign event.

Biden on Monday is scheduled to travel to Texas for an event marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Austin presidential library of Lyndon Johnson, a president who abandoned his 1968 re-election bid amid historic unpopularity.

From there, Biden will travel to Las Vegas to give speeches at the annual conferences of Black and Latino interest groups.

Additional reporting by Reuters