Fighting Joe Biden Comes Out Swinging at Naysayers
It was far from a perfect performance, but President Joe Biden used his Thursday evening press conference as a preview of the arguments he will deploy in the coming days, weeks and months, as fellow Democrats’ calls for him to step aside persist—and as his refusal to do so is likely to harden.
“I’m determined I’m running,” Biden said during a question-and-answer session with reporters that lasted for nearly an hour. “But I think it’s important that I allay fears, let them see me out there.” If he failed to do so entirely, he also displayed an obvious command of foreign policy. In the plainest terms, he was far more with it than during last month’s debate with Donald Trump, which has led to an explosion of anxiety about his fitness for the presidency—and the presidential campaign.
“This is a very strong performance,” Democratic strategist and former Obama administration official Joel M. Rubin wrote in a social media post. He said that Biden had given “a master class in how foreign policy and domestic policy intersect.”