Joe Biden, who now risks his political survival with every public appearance, will face a formidable test of his presidential candidacy on Thursday when he gives a press conference, an exercise he is not particularly fond of.
And it will be “a big boy press conference,” the White House promises, without giving further details on the duration or the schedule.
This curious expression is undoubtedly intended to distinguish this meeting from the short, well-marked question-and-answer sessions that the American president usually takes part in, during which journalists designated in advance ask questions.
At 6:30 p.m. — the time has been pushed back an hour from the original schedule — at the conference center hosting a NATO summit in Washington this week, Joe Biden will have to be quick-witted, speak clearly, in a confident voice, without notes and without a teleprompter.
He was unable to do so on June 27 during a debate against his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, whom he remains determined to confront in the presidential election in November.
Since becoming president, Joe Biden has given 36 press conferences, according to researcher Martha Joynt Kumar, quoted by Axios. Among his six predecessors, only Republican Ronald Reagan had done fewer.
Mitterrand and Kohl
The Democrat, a former stutterer, has never been a flamboyant orator, especially when he improvises. With age, his speeches have become more and more laborious.
It is sometimes difficult to understand him because he swallows words, stammers or speaks in a muffled voice.
His failures are sometimes spectacular: in February, he spoke in quick succession about former French President François Mitterrand, who died in 1996, instead of Emmanuel Macron, and mentioned the late Helmut Kohl instead of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Such mistakes on Thursday would be fatal for the 81-year-old Democrat, who has so far resisted calls to step down from within his party as well as from celebrities and the wealthy in the entertainment world.
These include actors George Clooney and Michael Douglas, director Rob Reiner, writer Stephen King, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings.
New York Times columnists have already called on him twice to step down.
On Thursday, they shifted their focus, calling on voters “to recognize the dangers of a second Trump term and reject them” in November, in an op-ed published ahead of the convention to swear in the 78-year-old billionaire next week.
Equal game
An Ipsos poll released Thursday by the Washington Post and ABC shows Joe Biden and Donald Trump tied at 46% of voting intentions each nationally.
But 67% of respondents believe that the American president should withdraw his candidacy. Among Democratic voters alone, this is also the majority opinion, to a lesser extent, at 56%.
Questions about the Democratic leader’s stamina and energy have for two weeks stifled all attempts by his campaign team to redirect attention to Donald Trump, presented as a danger to democracy.
On Thursday, for example, in connection with the NATO summit, she published a video calling the billionaire a “poodle” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A dozen Democratic representatives in the House of Representatives and one senator have now openly called on their candidate to drop out, even if it means launching a potentially chaotic nomination race.
Democratic Party lawmakers fear that Joe Biden will drag them down with him in the legislative elections that are being held at the same time as the presidential election.
Their House leader, Hakeem Jeffries, told Punchbowl News on Thursday that he wanted to talk to “every single” member, after which “we will meet at the leadership level and decide what the next step is.”