US President Joe Biden reiterated this Thursday in a long-awaited press conference that will continue with his re-election campaign and has assured that even NATO leaders have asked him to stay to beat former Republican President Donald Trump (2017-2021) in the November elections. Despite his insistence, two verbal lapses –One during an appearance with NATO and allied leaders and another at his first solo press conference since November – do not help to clear the air. doubts about his ability to govern for four more years, until he is 86, if he wins the elections.

First, Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” and at the beginning of his press conference he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.” “I haven’t had a single European ally come to me and say, ‘Joe, don’t run.’ What I hear them saying is, you have to win,” Biden said at a news conference on the final day of the NATO summit in Washington, marking the alliance’s 75th anniversary.

In this way, the president tried to use the support of the allied leaders to strengthen his position and draw contrasts with Trump, who is very critical of NATO. The press conference, in which 11 journalists asked him questions, was surrounded by maximum expectation, with all eyes focused on every cough, cough and pause of Biden. He was heavily criticized after his performance in the June 27 debate against Trump.

Slips of the tongue with the names of leaders

The press conference, however, got off to a bad start. Biden was coming from a NATO summit event where he had made a mistake and called “President Putin” to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskywhen he presented it to an audience. He quickly corrected himself, but the error had an immediate impact in the media.

At the press conference, right at the start, he again made a lapse when he mistakenly called “Trump” to his vice president, Kamala Harris. “I would not have chosen Vice President Trump as vice president if I believed she was not qualified to be president,” he said, after a question about whether Harris would be ready to take over the presidency if necessary.

Trump takes advantage of lapses

Trump quickly seized on these two gaffes to mock Biden in a series of posts on the social media site Truth Social.Great job, Joe,” the Republican wrote alongside a clip showing the moment Biden confused Harris with Trump.

“Crooked Joe has a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” the Republican wrote. Beyond those mistakes, the press conference, which lasted 59 minutes, It was similar to other responses Biden has given, with elaborate answers on foreign policy, going into details and telling well-known anecdotes, such as the long personal relationship he has with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he met when he was vice president under Barack Obama (2009-2017).

Biden used teleprompters for his opening remarks on NATO, but then improvised to answer reporters’ questions. Everyone who was able to ask Biden questions had been given a heads-up from the White House, and the president himself showed a white piece of paper at the press conference. where I had written down the names.

At this point in his presidency, Biden has held fewer press conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. According to a tally by the University of California, Santa Barbara, Biden He has given 36 press conferences since arriving at the White House in January 2021, while Trump in his four years in the Presidency gave 88.