Joe Biden held his first solo press conference of the year on Thursday. The event – which was billed by the White House communications team as a “big boy” press conference – was widely considered to be a make or break moment for his reelection campaign in the wake of last month’s debate debacle.
After taking questions from pre-selected reporters for an hour, the consensus was that Biden’s performance was uneven and filled with mental lapses, but it was not the death knell the growing anti-Biden faction on the left was likely hoping for.
On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Michael Knowles, host of The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles Show, to discuss Biden’s performance and what comes next.
Biden’s ‘Big Boy’ Moment
Unlike the June 27 CNN debate at which Biden gave rambling and incoherent answers while appearing disoriented with a vacant scare and agape mouth, he seemed more alert at the podium Thursday night. “I watched it and certainly it was better than the debate, but that’s such a low bar,” Megyn said. “Anything short of dying would be better than what we saw in the debate.”
While the general reaction is that he “survived” the high-stakes event, he made several notable factual errors, his answers often meandered before trailing off to his now-signature “anyways,” and his voice fluctuated between whispers and shouts for no apparent reason.
Biden confused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with Russian President Vladimir Putin at an event just before the presser, and then he continued his mix up by referring to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”
He corrected the former mistake on the spot after members of his team reportedly shouted at him to do so. But the latter error was not acknowledged until much later when Biden attempted to do clean up on X. “By the way: Yes, I know the difference,” he posted. “One’s a prosecutor, and the other’s a felon.”
Megyn admitted that she thought she was reading a satirical Babylon Bee headline when she first saw the Zelensky-Putin gaffe making the rounds, and Knowles joked that he emerged from the evening with a new understanding of foreign policy. “My main takeaway from the press conference is that President Biden and Vice President Donald Trump have done a great job supporting President Vladimir Putin of Ukraine, and that’s why NATO is stronger than ever,” he quipped.
Cause for Concern
While the Biden campaign was all over social media touting the 81 year old’s foreign policy prowess, Megyn did not have the same takeaway. “The number one thing I saw was something that his campaign ads seem to be praising him for… his depth of knowledge on foreign policy,” Megyn said. “But I, as somebody who has seen this up close and personal, saw… another sign of dementia, which is long, rambling, stream of consciousness soliloquies that don’t seem to have a point of beginning, a crescendo, a decrescendo, and an end.”
As she noted, “that is how normal answers to questions are provided,” and “he wasn’t able to do it.” As a result, Megyn said she “was not encouraged” by Biden’s performance and believes those saying otherwise are “pretending.”
Knowles agreed that the foreign policy hype is, well, hype. “If you want to demonstrate a vast knowledge of foreign policy, you have to be able to at the very least distinguish between national leaders and between countries,” he explained. “It’s not just the Putin-Zelensky gaffe. He also confused Europe for China… He seemed to suggest that he’s not the commander in chief of the United States… So, even the one area where they said he succeeded, he really didn’t succeed.”
What Comes Next
One thing that Biden made crystal clear is that he doesn’t plan to step aside unless someone proves to him that he has no chance to win in November. Some analysis is likening the press conference to a worst case scenario for the Democrats who want to see Biden replaced because the performance, while rough, was not rough enough to force him out.
“President Biden’s reelection campaign remains alive but is on life support,” Megyn said. “He again sent a message to Democrats that he is not going anywhere during his much-hyped ‘big boy’ press conference, but that has not stopped the behind the scenes plotting against him.”
And, as Knowles pointed out, it is not clear those attacks will stop. “He failed last night because what he had to do was reassure Democrat party elites that he is still the man for the job, and he manifestly did not do that,” he said. “And so now you’re seeing the journalists come out… [and] ramp up the leaks.”
Ultimately, Megyn said it is clear a disconnect remains between the Biden team and a growing segment of the left. “His campaign emerged from that last night like he was Tom Brady at the Super Bowl completing the Hail Mary to win the game,” she concluded. “And that’s not what happened.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Knowles by tuning in to episode 836 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.