On a crucial night, Biden remains defiant, but mistakes undermine his comeback

 Joe Biden took to the stage at his Thursday night news conference with everything on the line – his presidency, his re-election hopes, and his political life. Despite the high stakes, he barely acknowledged them during the hour-long session, held to mark the end of a NATO summit. Earlier in the day, he had mistakenly introduced Ukraine's President Zelensky as "President Putin" at a separate event.

This news conference was Biden's first unscripted appearance following a disastrous debate with his rival, Donald Trump. The debate performance led to calls from several Democratic politicians and donors for him to drop out of the race. At 81, Biden has faced continuous questions over his age and ability to serve another term, concerns that only intensified after the debate.

However, during the highly anticipated news conference, Biden dismissed these concerns and promised he was fighting not for his legacy but to finish the job he started when he took office in 2021. “If I slow down and can’t get the job done, that’s a sign I shouldn’t be doing it,” he said. “But there’s no indication of that yet.”

Depending on one's perspective, this was either a sign of dogged determination or a man in denial about the dire nature of his situation. Minutes after the news conference finished, several more Democratic members of Congress publicly called on Biden to step down, joining at least a dozen other lawmakers from his own party who have already done so.

The question now for Biden's campaign is whether this will open the floodgates or if the tide will hold. The situation was not helped by two excruciating gaffes that will be remembered by anyone who watched. In his very first answer, he referred to his own Vice-President Kamala Harris as "Vice-President Trump," a painful mistake in front of a national television audience. This came just an hour after his earlier blunder at the NATO event, where he introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "President Putin," prompting loud gasps from the audience.