WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is on a public and private campaign to rid itself of concerns about its cognitive abilities.
But with public doubts about his fitness to serve unabated, Biden’s every move is now under a withering microscope, as any potential stumble risks being magnified and dealing another blow to his candidacy.
To wit: In introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a NATO summit event on Thursday, Biden made a mistake and called him “President Putin”, eliciting audible gasps from the audience. He corrected himself, saying, “I’m so focused on defeating Putin” before giving up the lectern. Shortly afterwards, at a press conference, Biden mistakenly referred to as “Vice President Trump” — a gaffe that overshadowed what his aides considered to be otherwise a commanding performance.
And a significantly sensationalist interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos a week earlier was intended to show that Biden could handle probing questions from the media, but only sparked more concerns from Democrats about whether he could continue to serve as the party’s nominee.
“If you’re going to raise the stakes in an interview, it can’t be another example of you being hard to understand — not because he’s nice, not because he’s mumbling, but because his line of thinking doesn’t make sense,” said the former aide of Obama in the White House, Jon Lovett, on his podcast, “Pod Save America,” this week, referring to the Stephanopoulos interview.
Lovett continued: “Everybody’s saying, why isn’t he there, why isn’t he there, why isn’t he there? He goes out there and delivers an average performance and ends up being the worst of both worlds.”
Still, putting Biden in more improvised settings has been a consistent call from Democrats who were shaken by his 90-minute debate on June 27 and are seeking reassurance that the performance was an unusual blip and not a sign of broader mental decline. They want to see the handshakes, the cheerful greetings, the long exchange with journalists this was characteristic of Biden, especially during his 36 years in the Senate.
He has bounced from one event to another since: talking to supporters at a Detroit restaurant; rallying voters in Wisconsin; stopping at a coffee shop in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; answering some questions from donors, legislators and mayors on private virtual calls. He hosted Democratic governors at the White House while picking up the pace of news interviews, including with Stephanopoulos, the Houston Chronicle and NBC News, which will air on Monday.
“A lot of us, even before the debate, were encouraging the campaign, pushing the campaign to let Joe be Joe,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., one of the lawmakers who spoke privately with Biden after his disastrous debate. performance.
Padilla added: “Take it outside, unscripted — whether it’s town hall formats or rallies, whatever —
However, some of his recent outings and meetings have left intriguing results.
In the interview with Stephanopoulos, Biden said, “I don’t think so,” when asked if he watched a replay of the debate. To governors, he commented on the need to sleep more and restrict nighttime events – a remark that, even if made in jest, did not project the image of an energetic commander-in-chief.
During an interview with WURD radio in Philadelphia, Biden stumbled and said, “I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, the first Black woman to serve with a Black president” — shuffling some of his often-used lines about his pride in serving the first black president and choosing the first black woman to be vice president. The slip-up occurred even after it was revealed that the interviewer had asked questions specifically proposed by the Biden campaign.
By no means was Biden known as a foolproof politician during his decades in public life; instead, his gregarious political style has often been marred by verbal gaffes. But having Biden present more is a risk worth taking for his advisors.
“Joe Biden has been making gaffes for 40 years. He made some last night. He will probably continue to do so,” Michael Tyler, communications director for the Biden campaign, said on Air Force One as the president flew to Detroit on Friday. “Our opponent is someone who every day calls for a bloodbath if he loses, who begs to rule as a dictator on day one and who promises to ban abortion across the country.”
Biden’s allies and aides say his direct engagement since the debate — whether voters at impromptu stops during his travels or with dozens of mayors across the country, none of whom have expressed concerns about his fitness for office – proved that the president is still ready for the job.
In a conference call with mayors Wednesday night, Lansing, Michigan, Mayor Andy Schor noted that while many mayors raised their hands on the Zoom call, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego ended the session after responding only three questions. Still, Schor noted that Biden was “repeating thing after thing,” whatever the mayors wanted to hear, and “he wasn’t really doing it with notes.”
“He’s going to run and I think we all need to support him,” Schor told the Associated Press.
Satya Rhodes-Conway, mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, said she was impressed by the amount of detail Biden gave on policy issues, adding, “I didn’t know the president was a policy expert.”
Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, also emphasized that Biden must do more to convince voters that his debate performance was unique.
“I don’t believe he or the campaign should be reticent to interact directly with voters or the media in an impromptu way,” he said. “Joe Biden’s occasional gaffes are, in part, what made him so endearing and popular because he is willing to speak in an authentic, off-the-cuff way that many politicians are not willing to do.”
During Biden’s rally in Madison, Lisa Gellings and her son, Tim, were in a packed room watching his remarks. Then the president showed up for a surprise visit. For them, seeing Biden in person was completely different from seeing his halting performance at the Atlanta debate.
“He’s not the best on TV,” he said. “He’s much better this way, talking to us.”
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro in Washington, Scott Bauer and Colleen Long in Madison, Wisconsin, and Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.
