President Biden’s fitness for office will be put to the test this week during the NATO summit he is hosting in Washington, a high-stakes stress test that gives the president the opportunity to hit back at critics who say he is too old to a second term.
But the frenzied debate over Biden’s future — as he tries to contain the fallout from his alarming debate performance last month — risks overshadowing an event aimed at projecting strength against threats from Russia and China.
“Journalists at President Biden’s summit press conference probably won’t ask a question about NATO, but rather about the president’s political future,” said Jim Townsend, a former senior Pentagon official focused on NATO policy and current member deputy at the Center for New American Security.
Biden has been defiant in the wake of increasingly public calls from Democratic lawmakers to drop out of the race and widespread concern behind closed doors that the president is too fragile to mount a campaign against former President Trump in the November election.
“I’m running the world,” Biden said during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday — a 22-minute conversation that did little to allay concerns about Biden’s fitness for office but offered the president an opportunity to defend its track record of leadership on the global stage.
“We are the essential nation of the world,” he said.
The NATO summit, which begins Tuesday and will take place over three days in Washington, D.C., will focus on demonstrating the alliance’s enduring support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia and signaling deep ties in the Indo- Pacific to contradict the intentions of Chinese President Xi Jinping. on the inclusion of Taiwan.
Biden is credited with uniting allies in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — a sweeping effort that has so far spanned more than two years of war.
But Biden’s debate with Trump on June 27 spurred panic among even his most ardent supporters, with the president failing to match Trump’s energy with a weak, raspy voice and missing numerous responses.
“He’s under a microscope,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), ranking member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, told The Hill.
While Himes acknowledged there is a very real debate underway in the Democratic Party about the path forward for November, he said he did not believe questions about Biden’s fitness for office would overshadow the summit.
“There is a shooting in Ukraine right now, within the boundaries of NATO, I think that is the priority of the summit. I hope everyone stays focused on that.”
White House spokesman John Kirby on Monday dismissed the question of whether Biden’s poor debate performance late last month would cause problems for allies, saying it “presupposes the notion that they need to be reassured.” .
“I don’t believe that’s the case,” he said. “We are not picking up any signals of this from our allies.”
And Kirby sought to put the focus back on Ukraine, saying announcements during the summit will include new commitments to support air defense for Ukraine, deterrence capabilities to boost NATO and investments in the defense industrial base, including domestically in the US.
He said the leaders would also reaffirm that there is a path for Ukraine to join NATO in the future.
But Biden’s presence at the podium and his interactions with world leaders will be under close scrutiny as his campaign seeks to convince skeptical Democrats in Congress to support him when they return this week from recess.
The president is expected to meet newly elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday, and will host a dinner with NATO allies from 8pm – a contradiction to Biden’s speech. comments reported last week to Democratic governors that nighttime events tend to tire him.
On Thursday, Biden will begin a day of meetings at 10 a.m. with NATO allies and hold a press conference at 5:30 p.m.
Other high-profile events include a reception for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and nearly two dozen NATO allies who have signed bilateral security agreements with Kiev.
“Although the president has a very busy schedule, given his commitment to host the summit, we are working to establish several [bilaterals] and meetings with several world leaders on the sidelines of the summit, including President Zelensky,” a senior administration official said in a conference call with journalists previewing the summit.
The summit is also seen as laying the groundwork to protect the alliance and its support for Ukraine against a potential re-election of Trump in November.
While the US is seen as an indispensable partner and the de facto leader of the alliance, allies are faced with the reality that Trump could win in November and the possibility that he could follow through on threats to withdraw from the alliance or halt US commitments. to the mutual defense agreement of article 5.
“It is possible that a future U.S. administration will substantially reduce its traditional level of leadership and support for the alliance due to a change in American domestic policy or a conflict in Asia that consumes U.S. attention and resources,” Karl P. Mueller , senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, said of the challenges NATO faces.
Gian Gentile, associate director of the Arroyo Center at the RAND Corporation, added that “U.S. domestic politics” are a major challenge for the alliance.
“The alliance will need to improve cohesion among NATO states in its aim to help Ukraine win the war,” he said.
A joint statement issued at the end of the summit is expected to outline how NATO is taking a greater leadership role in coordinating support for Ukraine – concerned that a second Trump administration will reduce or end robust military and economic support from the USA to Ukraine. Kiev.
This includes the establishment of a NATO command post in Germany to coordinate arms deliveries among approximately 50 Kiev supporters – an initiative currently led by the US and called the Ramstein grouping.
The alliance will also seek commitments from allies to sustain its current level of funding for the coming year and will seek to establish consensus on a basis for future financial support.
“These are agreed NATO commitments to deliver something that is more responsible and more capable,” said Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s outgoing secretary general, at a roundtable with journalists on Sunday.
Brett Samuels contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
