Biden Survives His High-Stakes Press Conference: How It Happened

Amid calls for him to drop his reelection bid, Biden faced his first solo press conference since last year — and did okay.

In the two weeks since his disastrous debate performance, Joe Biden has been trying to stave off widespread concerns among Democrats about whether he’s fit enough to win his reelection campaign against Donald Trump and serve another term in the White House. While many elected Democrats have publicly made it clear that they still support the president staying in the race, many others have indicated, either privately or publicly, that they think Biden should step aside, or that at the very least he has a lot more to do more to convince them and American voters he can and should win. The president got another opportunity to do that on Thursday during his first solo press conference in eight months — and he performed much better against the press pool than he had against Trump. It was Biden’s second major unscripted public event since the debate, following his ABC News interview last week. He began with prepared opening remarks about NATO before taking 17 questions from 11 reporters, with the full presser lasting nearly an hour. Below is our reverse chronological account of what happened as it happened, as well as some of the reviews and reactions afterward. (You can watch the whole press conference for yourself here.)