Embattled Biden prepares for leadership test in NATO press conference
By
Naomi Lim
July 11, 2024 7:00 am
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President Joe Biden will hold a rare press conference on the sidelines of the 75th NATO summit that the White House has billed as a “big boy” event.
A make-or-break moment, the press conference comes as Biden faces mounting pressure from Democrats to appear in public without the help of a script and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) encourages her congressional colleagues to provide the president with this week to prove himself after last month’s first debate against former President Donald Trump.
Every time Biden speaks publicly between now and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month will be “a make-or-break moment,” according to party strategist Christopher Hahn, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), with Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) on Wednesday becoming the ninth House Democrat to call on the president to step down as nominee.
When asked whether that is a sustainable posture before November’s election, Hahn, host of the Aggressive Progressive podcast, told the Washington Examiner, “It’s not.”
Even if Biden performs well during Thursday evening’s press conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, it is “unlikely” to counter completely “the underlying issue of ‘is he too old?'” per another Democratic strategist, Stefan Hankin.
“If he does poorly, then it is likely the end of his campaign,” Hankin told the Washington Examiner. “It is hard to imagine that there will be one event that will erase all of the issues that the debate created, but Biden needs to start gaining the trust back and quickly.”
more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/presidential/3074716/biden-prepares-leadership-test-nato-press-conference/
