Mahkatop
Mahkatop — US President Joe Biden made a glaring error by referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” during his speech at the NATO Summit on Thursday (July 11, 2024).
This incident adds pressure on Biden, especially from members of the Democratic Party who are increasingly urging the 81-year-old president not to run for re-election.
“And now I want to turn this over to the President of Ukraine, who has as much courage as his determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said in his speech. Biden immediately corrected his mistake by saying, “Who will defeat President Putin, President Zelensky. I am very focused on defeating Putin,” Biden said.
This error occurred just before a highly anticipated press conference, where Biden hoped to allay concerns from Democratic colleagues about his ability to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming November election and lead the country for another four years.
So far, 13 out of 213 Democrats in the House of Representatives and one out of 51 Democrats in the Senate have publicly called for Biden to withdraw from the race. During the Thursday evening press conference, Biden faced various questions, including about his fitness for another four years in the White House.
Biden’s campaign has been through a tough time over the past two weeks, since his perceived poor performance in the debate against Donald Trump, his 78-year-old Republican rival. Biden’s top advisers have met with Democratic Senators to try to prevent further defections.
Before the press conference, four Democratic Representatives called for 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 written statement.
Others, while not directly calling for Biden to step down, questioned his ability to lead the country. “I doubt the President’s judgment about his health, his fitness for the job, and whether he is the one making important decisions about our country, rather than unelected advisers,” Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement.
No party leaders in Congress have called for Biden to end his candidacy, though former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday declined to say that Biden should continue running. Some Democratic Senators said they were still unsure about Biden’s ability to win after meeting with Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and other top advisers.
The campaign has also commissioned polls to test how Vice President Kamala Harris would perform if she replaced Biden as the main candidate. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week found that Harris would not perform any better than Biden if she became the Democratic candidate, as both are statistically tied with Trump.
The New York Times reported that some of Biden’s longtime advisers are considering ways to persuade him to withdraw from the re-election bid, while NBC News reported that some campaign staff believe he has no chance of winning the election. (*)
