WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelynskiy as “President Putin” on Thursday, as more members of his Democratic party called on the 81-year-old to drop his re-election bid.
“And now I want to turn the floor over to the president of Ukraine, who has both courage and determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said at the NATO summit in Washington, drawing gasps from those in the room.
“I'm going to defeat President Putin, President Zelenskiy. I'm very focused on defeating Putin,” Biden said, correcting himself.
The gaffe came shortly before a highly anticipated news conference in which Biden hopes to ease fears among fellow Democrats that he no longer has the ability to beat Republican Donald Trump in the November election, or to lead the country for another four-year term.
So far, 13 of the 213 House Democrats and one of the 51 Senate Democrats have publicly called on the president to drop out of the race.
During his solo news conference Thursday night, Biden will have to answer questions on a wide range of topics, including his suitability for another four years in the White House.
Biden's campaign has been on the ropes for two weeks, ever since his poor performance in the debate against Donald Trump, his 78-year-old Republican rival.
Top aides met with Democratic senators to try to stem further defections. His campaign argued that the debate has not dramatically changed the race, though he laid out a narrow path to reelection that acknowledged he faced an uphill climb in many states he won in 2020.
Before the news conference, four other House Democrats called on Biden to end his campaign: Brad Schneider of Illinois, Greg Stanton of Arizona, Ed Case of Hawaii and Hillary Scholten of Michigan.
“For the good of our country, it is time for the President to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders,” Stanton said in a prepared statement.
Others stopped short of calling for Biden to step down, though they questioned his ability to lead the country. “I question the president's judgment about his health, his fitness to do the job, and whether he is the one making important decisions about our country, rather than unelected advisors,” Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement.
None of the party's congressional leaders have called for Biden to end his candidacy, though former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday declined to say he should remain in the race.
Some Senate Democrats said they were still unsure of Biden's ability to win after meeting with Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon and other top advisers.
The campaign has commissioned a poll to see how Vice President Kamala Harris would fare if she replaced Biden on the ticket, according to a source familiar with the matter. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week found Harris would fare no better than Biden if she were the Democratic nominee, as the two are statistically tied with Trump.
The New York Times reported that some longtime advisers were considering ways to convince him to drop his re-election bid, while NBC News reported that some members of the campaign team thought he had no chance of winning the election.
All eyes on the press conference
Congressional Democrats will be watching closely later tonight when Biden takes questions from the White House press corps.
In his first formal solo news conference since November 2023, Biden will be asked to speak on a wide range of topics, including likely questions about whether his doctors have found evidence of mental decline.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week found Biden and Trump tied at 40% each. Other opinion polls indicate Trump is widening his lead over Biden, and some strategists have warned Trump has a chance of winning reliably Democratic states like New Hampshire and Minnesota.
In its strategy memo, the campaign argued that it had always expected a close election and could win by focusing on three battleground states: Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
If he were to win in those states, along with others considered Democratic, he would obtain 270 electoral votes, the minimum necessary to secure the presidency. Biden obtained 306 electoral votes in 2020.
The campaign characterized other battleground states he won in 2020 as “not out of reach.”
