'What we need in a president': Biden lauded for 'sharp' answers to questions despite gaffe

11 July 2024

Various journalists, commentators and experts are praising President Joe Biden's most recent live press conference, and his command of complex domestic and international issues.

The president spoke extemporaneously at the 75th North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit for more than an hour, and gave detailed answers to questions on various topics ranging from taxes and tariffs to inflation, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire negotiations, the Russia-Ukraine war and even Indo-Pacific trade policy. Still, Biden seems to have done little to taper Congressional Democrats' calls for him to step down.

"I still think it’s probably in the Democratic Party’s best interest for Biden to step down," tweeted MSNBC and Daily Beast columnist Michael Cohen (whose bio on X reads "NOT Trump's lawyer). "[B]ut any doubts I had that Biden can still do the job of president have been quashed by this press conference."

Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake observed that Biden "has spent more than 8 minutes responding to a foreign-policy question and 2 follow-ups from NYT's David Sanger." When calling on Sanger, Biden wryly referenced his icy relationship with the national newspaper of record, playfully telling Sanger to "be nice."

Those reacting to the press conference also compared Biden's deft knowledge of the ins and outs of policy to former President Donald Trump's rambling tirades. Tim Tagaris, who was a former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vermont) 2016 presidential campaign, tweeted: "Donald Trump couldn't come within 1,000 miles of having this kind of substantive policy conversation on any topic, period. And everyone knows that to be true."

"Trump didn't even know what NATO was and still doesn't, whereas Biden knows so much about foreign policy that he can bore us with it," former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega tweeted. "That is what we need in a president, even if it doesn't make for exciting TV."

While Biden's press conference was mostly cogent and substantive, he did have one notable gaffe. When answering one reporter's question about whether he felt Vice President Kamala Harris was capable of being president, Biden noted that she was, though he mistakenly referred to her as "Vice President Trump." This came after another gaffe on Thursday in which Biden wrongly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "President Putin," before quickly correcting himself.

Bluesky user GoneBabyGone opined that, given the president's demonstration of expert knowledge on various major policy topics, his gaffe was not a significant error.

"I think you can question Biden’s electability and mental acuity and acknowledge he probably does not actually think Donald Trump is the vice president," they wrote.

University of Texas-Austin journalism professor John Schwartz echoed that sentiment, writing: "Whatever the verbal flubs, Biden's command of the issues is sharp here."

Mother Jones D.C. bureau chief David Corn gave his summation of the press conference by tweeting: "Biden: Made a gaffe about Putin. Trump: Told Putin he could do what he wants."

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