The tweet was heard around the world. President Biden was speaking to a pre-approved audience of journalists at a key NATO press conference, where he was scheduled to introduce key attendee Volodymyr Zelensky. The leader of the free world said in his now-characteristic warbling voice: “Ladies and gentlemen… President Putin“
Rows of world leaders behind him shared looks of anguish. The room was silent. Had the president mistaken one of his closest allies for his toughest foe? Stepping back from the podium for a moment, and then, in the slowest bout of whiplash ever, Biden continued to ramble. “President Putin, you’re going to beat President Putin, President Zelenskyy. I’m focused on defeating Putin.”
It was an awkward evasion, but Biden might have gotten away with it had there not been another “misunderstanding” while responding to the reporter’s first question. Fears about an irreconcilable political divide in the United States are clearly exaggerated. Biden now announced that he “did not choose Vice President Trump as his running mate,” saying, “I did not believe she was qualified to be president.”
It’s never a good sign that Cabinet officials in Washington are viewing every press conference announced by the White House as a sign that the president is about to announce his withdrawal from the Democratic nomination. The president, who is known for not accepting unscripted press conferences, was hoping that last night’s performance would allay any doubts among Democrats about whether he could successfully challenge Donald Trump in the presidential election.
He has certainly swayed those who were wavering. Forget about running, it is increasingly doubtful that Biden should even remain in the position he was elected president in. If there was ever a time to invoke the 25th Amendment, it is now.
The Trump campaign couldn’t believe their good fortune. There were yet more humiliating soundbites demonstrating Biden’s now unmistakable cognitive decline, and just enough arrogant defiance to suggest he’s not going to voluntarily drop out of the race anytime soon. Suggesting that there is at least one MAGA sympathetic figure in Biden’s HQ, the Biden campaign’s official social media accounts decided to highlight the humiliating exchange with Zelensky.
Democratic activists are in the nightmare position of being unable to publicly acknowledge their concerns about Biden’s unfitness to be president — a fact many of them realized long before the disastrous June debate — and fearing that their private urgings on the president to step down will fall on deaf ears.
But that is not enough. This is no longer a domestic issue. Our Prime Minister already claimed earlier this week that Biden is “doing very well”. The demands of diplomacy are clearly stronger than the demands of reality. And yet the President of the most powerful country on earth cannot afford to blather on about siesta time in NATO while Western enemies look for signs of weakness.
Special adviser Robert Hur was being rather kind in March when he described the president as “a caring, well-meaning old man with a failing memory.” Well-meaning? Biden’s 36 years as a senator and two failed presidential bids were driven by ambition and burning resentment, two deep-seated emotions that are essential to understanding his thinking.
His first presidential campaign, more than 30 years ago, ended in scandal when he was found to have plagiarised a speech by Neil Kinnock – perhaps we should ask the former Labour leader to draft a new speech for Biden, to mark his retirement from public office.