Friday Briefing

President Biden tried to defuse some questions about his age and fitness for office.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

Biden vows to stay in the race

In a nearly hourlong news conference last night, President Biden gave no indication that he would consider ending his bid for re-election, even as he faces calls to step back from within his party and as his high-dollar fund-raising has cratered. Asked why he was not passing the baton to a younger generation, Biden, 81, argued that the “gravity of the situation” called for experience. Read updates from the speech.

After initially reading from a teleprompter, Biden tried to defuse some questions about his age and fitness for office. His answers included cogent responses as well as a few flubs, including when he said “Vice President Trump” when he meant to refer to Kamala Harris. Hours earlier, he had introduced Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as “President Putin” at a NATO meeting.

But Biden also dove deep on some complex foreign policy answers, spending more time at the lectern than in his last two solo news conferences. He boasted about his accomplishments on the world stage, noted the decline in inflation in the U.S. and said he was optimistic that Hamas and Israel can complete an agreement to bring an end to the war in Gaza.

By the numbers: The president has held only 14 solo news conferences — the fewest of any president since Ronald Reagan — and it was his first since November.

Political outreach: The Biden campaign dispatched staff members to meet with Democratic lawmakers in an effort to calm their nerves, even as five more members of the House called on the president to step aside. At the same time, some Biden aides have become convinced that abandoning his campaign for re-election is painful but inevitable.

Concerns: Democratic voters have for years expressed doubts about his verbal stumbles, dated references and uneven, halting speaking style. Those anxieties have only deepened throughout his presidency.