Democrats and the GOP had wildly different perspectives on President Joe Biden’s highly anticipated NATO Summit news conference, with Republicans dubbing the event another campaign win in Trump’s back pocket and Democrats having mixed reactions.
Even so, there was a tone shift among some Democrats who thought Biden’s performance was “strong.” One Democratic activist went so far as to say he believes there are “people who owe President Biden an apology” after the president’s press conference. The comments come after Democrat lawmakers and pundits alike have either called on Biden to drop out of the race or expressed concerns about his aging.
Meanwhile, a Trump campaign official told Fox News Digital after Thursday night’s press conference, “It appears Biden did enough to convince his apologists that he should remain on the ballot, but he also reinforced what the American people know.”
U.S. President Joe Biden pauses while speaking during a NATO 75th anniversary celebratory event at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium on July 9, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“Their lives are being hurt by his weakness and failure on a daily basis,” the source said.
Donald Trump Jr., who is a top surrogate for this father, said on his Rumble livestream that Biden did “fine enough to be able to stay in it” but later shared a social media post that blended the faces of Trump and Harris together and said “Vice President Trump.”
Veteran Republican consultant Dave Carney told Fox News the news conference “couldn’t have been better” for Biden.
Biden started out earlier in the day stumbling when he introduced Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. He immediately caught his gaffe and corrected himself. However, later during the evening press conference, he also referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump” and did not correct himself.
During and after the press conference, Biden’s immediate team and many of his allies were quick to tout the event as an overwhelming success. A source familiar with the workings of the Biden campaign also said that Biden had exceeded expectations with a thorough discussion of foreign policy.
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President Biden and former President Trump. ( Win McNamee/Getty Images/Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The source added, however, that the press conference alone won’t ultimately convince voters but that continued campaigning and travel by Biden should.
Some Democrats claimed that the president’s answers regarding foreign policy issues showed him to have expertise in international affairs.
“To answer the question on everyone’s minds: No, Joe Biden does not have a doctorate in foreign affairs. He’s just that f—ing good,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates wrote in a post to X.
Joel Rubin, a former State Department official during the Obama administration, considered Biden’s performance to be “very strong.”
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President Joe Biden at a news conference during the NATO Summit in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, July 11, 2024. President Joe Biden and NATO’s 31 other leaders had hoped their summit would celebrate fresh unity against Russia’s Vladimir Putin, send a warning to China and prove that the alliance is as strong as ever in its 75th year, but the three days of pageantry will be overshadowed by domestic turmoil across the alliance. (Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This is a very strong performance. Quite frankly. @POTUS is putting on a master class in how foreign policy and domestic policy intersect, explaining how crucial American global leadership is to our people here at home. Well done, Mr. President,” Rubin wrote in a post on X.
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Democrats remain largely divided on whether Biden should suspend his re-election campaign and allow another candidate to go head-to-head with Trump in November. On Friday, Fox News confirmed that another House Democrat, California Rep. Mike Levin, has joined the chorus of lawmakers calling on Biden to step aside.
At least 10 House Democrats and one in the Senate have publicly called on Biden to end his re-election bid, and a growing number of both House and Senate Democrats have publicly and privately warned that the president will lose to Trump in November.
Fox News Digital’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and Paul Steisenhauer contributed to this report.
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