Biden news conference carries high stakes as campaign teeters

President Joe Biden on Thursday mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump” in the opening question of his highly-anticipated solo press conference in Washington.

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president [if] I think she’s not qualified to be president,” Biden said, confusing his second-in-command with his November election opponent, former President Donald Trump.

The president misspoke and appeared to lose his train of thought several times as he fielded reporters’ questions.

In another blunder, Biden wrongly referred to his chief of staff as “my commander in chief” before catching his mistake.

Following his bungled debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27, Biden came into this press conference on a mission: Prove to the public that he can handle tough questions in an unscripted environment.

Earlier Thursday evening, Biden added salt to his political wounds at a scripted NATO event honoring Ukraine where he accidentally introduced Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin.”

“And now I want to hand it over to the President of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said, before quickly correcting himself.

Throughout Thursday’s press conference, Biden delivered stumbling, sometimes meandering responses to questions on foreign policy, inflation and other issues, which he tried to use to attack Trump.

He gave a seven-minute response to a question about China, for instance, where he occasionally trailed off mid-sentence and tripped over some words.

“Some of our European friends are going to be curtailing their investment in Russia, I mean, excuse me, in China,” the president said.

When he cited numbers, he repeatedly prefaced with a disclaimer that he might get the number wrong: “Don’t hold me to the exact number.”

Biden also often interrupted himself mid-sentence, diverting to unrelated topics as he worked to make his case for reelection: “There’s so much we can do still. I’m determined to get it done. It’s about freedom. By the way, I’ll end this, well I’m not going to do that … Haley has to come up too,” he said before trailing off.

The last time Biden held a solo press conference was in November 2023 after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California.

This time around, the president faced a new level of pressure with the future of his reelection campaign in the balance.

Each day since his June debate flop, new cracks have emerged in Biden’s support from Democratic lawmakers, donors, fundraisers and strategists.

Hours before Biden’s highly-anticipated press conference, one of his campaign officials told NBC News that the president needs to drop out: “He’ll never recover from this.”

As of Thursday, at least 14 Democratic lawmakers have publicly called on Biden to exit the race and allow a new Democratic nominee to take the top of the ticket.

This is developing news. Check back for updates.