The score is now 0-3 against Biden. He faltered in the June 27 debate, stumbled in his interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, and blundered in the NATO press conference on Thursday. How many more chances does Biden need to demonstrate his mental acuity and physical health for the job he seeks?
Just hours before the crucial press conference, President Biden mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” during a signing ceremony at the NATO summit, raising concerns about his mental acuity.
It had been eight months since President Biden faced the press - and it showed. In Washington at the NATO conference, he fielded questions from Reuters, AFP, CBS, Financial Times, AP, Polish Radio, The New York Times, NPR, Bloomberg, Scripps News, and NBC - and while he appeared to stay above water on most questions, the presser was a disaster.
The questions appeared not to have been shared with Biden before—like it happened with two radio hosts recently when the Biden campaign shared eight questions beforehand and asked the hosts to select any four of them—although the order of whom he would call had been decided before. The questions were relatively easy ball pitches, and the friendly press, trying to switch to a more traditional role of holding Biden to account, didn't follow through with any challenges.
On numerous occasions, Biden failed to complete a sentence or a thought. He used his usual "Anyway" filler to drift from what he meant to say and stop altogether. The President was extraordinarily defensive, refusing to mention numbers or statistics for fear of being pounded upon later. He even said so when answering a question about his campaign - and he began alluding to the number of people in his campaign headquarters and stopped himself with, "I don't want to quote a number and find out I am off."
Biden also employed his usual public speaking tactics of whispering to the microphone multiple times and showing anger once, a dramatic move which he often undertakes to display passion. "Control guns, not girls," Biden said, although the question asked was neither about girls nor guns.
The presser didn't start well for the President when he referred to Kamala Harris as Vice President Trump: "I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President!"
When Biden repeated his practiced campaign lies about the American economy's performance, the federal debt, and inflation's lowest level this month, the journalists in the room never challenged him.
As we noted recently, the dark reality of Bidenomics is the alarming 19.4% inflation under the President's watch, which is 5.8% annually. When he took office, inflation was at just 1.4%. Since March 2021, it has stayed above the Federal Reserve's 2% target (39 consecutive months.).
Under Biden, the federal debt has increased by $6.9 trillion. The Federal Reserve printed money out of nothing to finance his spending spree. The increased money supply without a corresponding increase in goods and services reduced the value of each dollar, causing prices to rise quickly and leading to high inflation, effectively acting as a hidden tax on everyone. Prices have increased by 19.4%, while real wages have declined by 2.1%. Average hourly earnings for all employees dropped 2.1% to $11.15 in May 2024 from $11.39 in January 2021, when Biden took office.
Biden mentioned his executive action of working with Mexico to stem the tide of illegals, but journalists never questioned why he unwound Trump-era executive orders on day one of his administration that has allowed nearly 18 million illegal aliens to invade America.
Knowing that he was in safe territory— his legacy is that he strengthened NATO and expanded it to Finland and Sweden—Biden began to talk about Article 5's protections, which had been invoked only once (after 9/11) when the "an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all" clause kicked in. However, no journalist has questioned him about the fact that Article 5 protections do not apply to Ukraine, which is not yet a NATO member. He repeated the usual lie of the Beltway crowd that Putin plans to attack countries other than Ukraine, although there has never been any evidence or indication.
When David Sanger of the New York Times asked about NATO's current stance on China materially aiding Russia's weaponization in Ukraine - and how NATO would control China - Biden meandered into industrial policy and criticized Beijing’s rule requiring foreign companies to have no more than a 49% stake, and about technology transfer. Biden again went unchallenged.
When Sanger asked Biden how, in a second term, he could negotiate with President Xi and Putin, given the hostile relations he has promoted with two world powers, Biden's response was not convincing. He talked about how he had spent 90+ hours with Xi over the years, but numbers don't mean much. He refused to talk to Putin until the Russian President changed his behavior.
On Ukraine, Biden insisted that Russia was losing. He even mentioned territorial statistics - cautioning that he may be off - to indicate that Russia has lost valuable resources in blood and treasure to hold no more territory than before. Again, no one challenged him.
The truth is that after nearly $200 billion in Western arms shipments, training, logistics, and strategic support, Russia has continued to advance in Ukraine. According to the Harvard Kennedy School's Russia-Ukraine War Report Card in December 2023, Russia occupied about 20% of Ukraine, nearly 9,000 square miles more than before the Feb 2022 invasion. Since that report, Russia has gained more territory, however minuscule, but not lost any.
By all measures, Ukraine is losing badly. Soldiers have been bravely fighting in the theater for two years non-stop, with no rotation or rest. Fatigue, illness, frustration at being away from home for extended periods, and the diminishing strength of the fighting forces due to casualties would compel any nation to go to the peace table. According to the New York Times, Russia is now firing at least five times as many artillery rounds as Ukraine. Russia continues to enjoy an advantage in the number of soldiers and weaponry.
When an Arab American reporter for NPR asked about Israel/Hamas, Biden never talked about Hamas's brutal attack that triggered Israel to respond. Nor did Biden mention hostages. For both responses, he went unchallenged.
If this was the best Biden could do, Americans have a severe issue confronting them. The presser was not about allaying fears about Biden's ability to win in November 2024—which seems to be the only thing that Democrats want. All concerned patriots should pause and ask whether the most powerful country in the world is in safe hands as Biden pushes America closer to World War III.
