Biden says 'there is no indication' of him slowing down after 'Trump' and 'Putin' gaffes — as it happened (2024)

It is nearly 1am in Washington DC so we will end our live coverage here.

Here are some of the key moments from Joe Biden's presser:

• Biden introduces Zelenskyy as Putin at NATO summit
• President Biden refers to Kamala Harris as 'Vice-President Trump'
• Biden is neurologically tested 'every single day'
• The US president ends press conference with mic drop about Trump

You can look back at all of the developments below, ordownload the ABC News appandsubscribe to our range of news alertsfor the latest updates.

North America correspondent Barbara Miller has looked at where Joe Biden left critics and supporters alike after his performance at the US president's first major press conference in eight months, where he answered questions from reporters unscripted.

Saying he had unfinished business, that the "gravity of the situation" meant he had to seek a second term, and mixing up the names of his vice president Kamala Harris and presidential opponent Donald Trump, Biden gave a "meandering but passable" performance.

Read the full analysis here:

With the intense speculation over Joe Biden's future consuming so much attention, there hasn't been quite as much paid to who Donald Trump is going to announce as his running mate.

What had been a long list of options is widely reported to have been narrowed down to three: Florida senator Marco Rubio, Ohio senator JD Vance, and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum.

Each offers potential advantages and pitfalls.

Rubio, for example, could help Trump gain support among Latino voters, but he might have to move out of Florida due to the US constitution preventing a presidential and vice-presidential candidate living in the same state.

Vance has shifted from a "never-Trump guy" to - in the words of one US media outlet - a "MAGA king". But he might not help the former president with swing voters.

And Trump is reportedly drawn to Burgum's reputation as a "self made man", but he doesn't have a lot of national name recognition.

Trump keeps teasing the VP announcement, and it could come at a rally he has planned in Pennsylvania over the weekend.

But he likes to keep everyone guessing, and there's still a chance it might not be revealed until next week's Republican convention instead.

Age and wisdom aside, the eternal meme-ability ofJoe Biden'sgaffes will live on.

Researcher and expert on US domestic politics at the United States Studies Centre,Victoria Cooper, has told News Radio that the US president won't be able to live down recent gaffes, as he defends his decision to continue his bid for re-election.

Within the first few minutes of today's long-awaited press conference he mistakenly referred to Vice PresidentKamala Harrisas "Vice President Trump" and earlier, introduced the Ukrainian presidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyas "President Putin".

"Moments like this aren't necessarily reflective of the cognitive abilities of the president for example, they're often just a gaffe, but they do become sort of social media memes," she said.

"They become these snackable moments that people like to replay."

Donald Trump kept an uncharacteristically low profile in the immediate aftermath of the debate, preferring to watch on as Democrats started tearing themselves apart.

But in recent days he's publicly mocked the man he calls "Sleepy Joe", and took to Truth Social to highlight Joe Biden's early press conference slip-up.

Trump has also ramped up his attacks on vice-president Kamala Harris, who's considered one of - if not the - most likely person to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate, if he steps aside.

Biden's candidacy crisis has been a gift for the former president, and he mightbe hoping his successor stays in the race if Trump believes it gives him the best chance of winning.

But he'll want the spotlight back on his own campaign when the Republican National Convention gets underway in Milwaukee next week.

NATO talks delayed the start of the US president's unscripted prime-time address, but it finally got underway later Thursday night local time.

Brad Ryan in the Washington DC bureau has summed up Joe Biden's so-called "big boy press conference" in a few key moments:

Professor Brendan O'Connor says the gaffes Biden made will overshadow his detailed answers on the questions asked about his policies.

"These verbal faults of his misspeaking, that is going to be what a lot of the press coming out of this is, not some of his more detailed answers to some of the questions," he told News Channel.

You can watch the full interview here:

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One of those members of Congress we mentioned earlier who called for Joe Biden's withdrawal post-press conference was Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee.

He told CNN there's "not a single number out there" that suggests Joe Biden can win November's election, and he argues it's too risky to stick with the president in case he repeats his debate performance at a later date.

"This needs to be resolved, I don't know, in the next five to seven days, because we just went 10 days where the story was not Donald Trump promising totalitarianism, it was how is Joe Biden going to do in the 'big boy' press conference?" he said.

"This is the moment, and in the next 96 hours perhaps is the moment to set aside the poetry, the loyalty and the love, and ask yourself a hard question, which is, 'are you sure he's going to win?'"

Over a dozen high-ranking Democrats have asked President Biden to step down, both before and after his solo press conference, this morning.

It comes amid growing speculation about the president's health.

You can read more of which Democrats have asked Biden to step aside in Brianna Morris-Grant's story here:

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The constant question on everyone's lips is whether Joe Biden is too old to be contesting the US presidential race at the age of 81 (his 82nd birthday is a couple of weeks after the November 5 election).

DrEmmaShortis, a senior researcher at the Australia Institute and historian of US and global politics, spoke to ABC News Channel about today's press conference and what it means for the octogenarian in the Oval Office.

"Recovery for Joe Biden at this stage is almost impossible because he effectively needs to prove that he is not too old and he is too old.

"I don't think he has done the job that he needed to in reassuring particularly his colleagues in the Democratic Party," she added.

Dr Shortis called the succession of the presidency, whether now or after the election, a "strategic nightmare" for the Democratic Party.

She noted senior Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries comments about "candid conversations" within caucus left the door open for a new candidate, which could well be vice-president Kamala Harris.

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The discussion on Joe Biden's press conference and whether it did enough to assure those doubting him focuses too much on his gaffes, says Matt Bevan, host of the ABC Podcast America, If You're Listening.

"The more crucial thing is that he's just not communicating very well", Bevan said.

"He starts a point and then he gets distracted by something and goes off on another tangent, or he'll throw in little side comments that don't really make sense unless you're really leaning in and listening very hard to what he's saying and you know all the back story."

Is this the final nail in Biden's attempts to stay in the race? This press conference was a disaster and has only raised more questions rather than allay fears he wasn't up to the job.

Scott

Good on him. He has done a fantastic job for the free world. The position is more that one person. Too much media hype … Shame on them, but what’s new

Peter

This is so hard to watch. I’m not sure how much longer I can look at this trainwreck. This election is too important to have this insecurity.

Stephanie

Joe is a lovely and gracious man, but I'm afraid it's time for him to pass the baton to a younger person. Too many gaffes for a world leader.

Peter Enderby

Seems to me the problem with presidential politics - so much focus on the individual, whether they're up for it, whether they are healthy, energetic, smart or crazy (not to name names). It takes the focus away from the actual policies and puts it on the person, good or bad.

Josh

John Barron, host of ABC show Planet America, reckons this performance may have quelled murmurs in the Democratic Party of replacing Joe Biden with a younger, less gaffe-prone candidate.

"If the knives were going to come out into the open, we were going to see them," he told ABC News Channel following the end of Biden's solo press conference.

"We have heard ... that literally dozens of Democratic members of Congress are ready to break out into the open and call on Joe Biden to step down, but this performance may well have been good enough to halt that.

He says the Biden campaign has been doing internal polling on the popularity of Kamala Harris, the most obvious replacement if Biden were to go.

In a post on X, the Biden-Harris campaign has homed in on President Biden's Putin gaffe. While it might seem strange to highlight it, the thinking is likely it's better to own it and try and focus attention on the interaction between the president and the Ukrainian leader in its immediate aftermath.

Since Biden addressed the media, three more leading Democrats have urged him to stand aside from the presidential race.

Politico is reporting Congressman Scott Peters says Biden should withdraw.

Congressman Jim Himes also says he no longer believes Biden is the best candidate to beat Donald Trump.

Representative Eric Sorensen has tweeted: "I am hopeful Biden will step aside in his campaign for President."

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ABC's North America correspondent Barbara Miller was in the room for Joe Biden's first solo press conference this year, and told ABC's News Channel that the gaffes will be remembered above all from today.

"This was a man digging in again, that was very clear," she said of the "tense and controlled" atmosphere in the room, where Biden had a list of specific reporters to call on and White House aides controlled the roving microphones.

"There is no real acknowledgement still of just how deep the concerns go about Joe Biden's presidency," she said.

"I didn't get the sense that this was a guy who was levelling with his audience. He was very confident, very proud of his achievements."

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Bruce Wolpe, senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre and former Democrat staffer, spoke to News Channel just earlier about Joe Biden's work to shore up his future and possible second term as US president.

"I think the tide has been halted and will now roll back," Mr Wolpe said.

"If he has another gaffe, another problem, another freeze up later in July, August, September, that is when a cataclysmic event will happen, but for now I believe he is secure."

Joe Biden's two verbal stumbles today - mixing up Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and Ukraine's president with Russia's - will dominate headlines out of this press conference.

But overall, this was a stronger performance than the president's dismal debate two weeks ago.

Biden remained defiant, insisting he's best qualified to take on Donald Trump and that he's going to "finish the job" he started.

He spruiked his record in office, attacked Donald Trump as a threat to domestic and global security and dismissed calls to take a cognitive test, arguing that no matter what he did, "no-one's going to be satisfied".

Trump has already started mocking the president over the Harris/Trump gaffe, with the sarcastic comment, "Great job, Joe!"

But what really matters now is whether Biden has done enough to settle anxious Democrats — or if the momentum that had been building around calls for his withdrawal had already gone too far.

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Planet America host John Barron is speaking to ABC News Channel and characterised Joe Biden's performance as "strong" despite today's name-swapping gaffes.

"This is his strong suit, foreign policy, characterising Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump as threats to NATO," he said.

"If this Joe Biden had turned up two weeks ago at that debate we would not be in the situation.

"This was a perfectly competent performance by somebody who for his many faults knows foreign policy inside out."

The press conference has wrapped up but here are some pictures of Biden during it.