President Biden began his much-awaited press conference on Thursday evening by reviewing the NATO Summit in Washington and highlighting his administration’s accomplishments.
His opening remarks served as a robust defense of multilateral engagement as the cornerstone of American foreign policy and were also aimed at creating a more favorable context for addressing media questions regarding his physical and mental fitness.
According to UBS strategists, Biden’s performance during the conference was "decidedly mixed," with energetic comments on gun control being undermined by missteps concerning the capability of his own vice president to assume the presidency and win a national election.
"In short, the presser is unlikely to change many minds over whether he should continue to pursue the nomination at next month's convention," UBS strategists remarked.
"At least one response may come back to haunt the president,” strategists added.
Near the end of the press conference, when asked whether convention delegates should be obligated to vote for him, Biden stated that the delegates “are free to do whatever they want.” Currently, rules direct delegates to reflect the “sentiments of those who elected them.”
This response might inadvertently give the party’s rules committee a chance to change the instructions given to delegates, potentially allowing them to vote their conscience in the first round of balloting.
"While the probability of a rule change is still low, the president may have just committed an unforced tactical error," strategists concluded.
In his first response during the conference, Biden mistakenly referred to Vice-President Kamala Harris as "Vice-President Trump," further fueling widespread concerns about his verbal missteps. This error occurred merely an hour after he incorrectly introduced Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” during the NATO summit.