NEW YORK TIMES
President Biden entered Thursday night hoping that a steady performance at a news conference with the national press corps would quell dissension among Democrats, some of whom want him out of the race.
But within minutes of his departure from the stage, two more Democratic representatives joined the growing number of party members calling for him to end his re-election campaign against former President Donald J. Trump.
“The 2024 election will define the future of American democracy, and we must put forth the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump’s promised MAGA authoritarianism,” Representative Jim Himes, a moderate Democrat from Connecticut and the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. “I no longer believe that is Joe Biden.”
And Representative Scott Peters of California also argued that Mr. Biden should leave the race, saying, “The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course.”
Later in the evening, Representative Eric Sorensen of Illinois joined their ranks, becoming the 18th Democratic member of either the House or the Senate to call for Mr. Biden to step aside.
More Democrats may defect on Friday, now that members of Congress no longer have to worry about embarrassing the president during the NATO summit that took place in Washington this week. But other Democrats said Mr. Biden’s deft grasp of policy — and the fact that he answered questions for nearly an hour — was heartening, despite awkward moments like a flub in which he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”
“Honestly, could the other guy have done any of that?” Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, one of Mr. Biden’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, said of Mr. Trump in an interview. “Anyone concerned about his ability to lead and govern should be reassured.”
On CNN, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee said Mr. Biden had “convinced a lot of people he should stay in the race.”
“Much (too much) will be made of Pres Biden flubbing names. But his substance in that presser matters,” Patrick Gaspard, the president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, wrote on social media. “His cogent responses on China and Russia. His centering of need for new industrial policy. Even policy points that I might disagree with were robust! Substance matters.”
In a text message, Representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania — a Biden ally — said the president “showed his command of the issues and policy.”
Mr. Biden’s aides, meanwhile, took a victory lap.
Ron Klain, the former White House chief of staff who helped prepare Mr. Biden for the debate that exacerbated questions about the president’s age, wrote that the president had delivered a “strong performance” with a very strong economic message “about lowering prices and growing the economy.”
And on X, Mr. Biden responded to having mixed up his vice president — the former district attorney of San Francisco and the former attorney general of California — and his opponent, Mr. Trump, with a sharp attack.
“By the way: Yes, I know the difference,” Mr. Biden wrote. “One’s a prosecutor, and the other’s a felon.”