EXCLUSIVE — Republican National Committee Co-chairwoman Lara Trump is adamant her family remains behind former President Donald Trump as she and husband Eric step up, becoming more prominent in national politics, while sister-in-law Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, take a step back.

“We’re all one big team,” Lara Trump told the Washington Examiner from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “Just because Ivanka and Jared are not fully out front right now does not reflect in any way any less support. We are all 100% behind him.”

“They’re going to be at the convention later this week,” she said of her sister- and brother-in-law. “You will see them here. It’s just everybody, I think, has different seasons in life. I know that Jared and Ivanka are really proud of their time working in the White House. I think they made some amazing things happen during my father-in-law’s administration. But it was tough. It was really tough on them. It was really tough on their family. I don’t blame them at all for taking a bit of a backseat role at this point. I guess it’s my turn to step up and do some things.”

Lara Trump, herself a mother of two young children, was elected co-chairwoman of the RNC in March, alongside former North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley. A onetime television producer, Lara Trump has consistently expressed her support for the former president but, unlike Ivanka and Kushner, did so from a political, not official, capacity. Meanwhile, Eric Trump, her husband of 10 years, has focused on the old family business, the Trump Organization. Eric Trump, like his wife, has become a mainstay on television this week during the convention, appearing on more liberal-leaning outlets compared to his brother Donald Trump Jr.

But with the new family business being politics, the former president’s adult children have become more concerned with securing their father’s legacy, regardless of whether he secures a second term in November.

Lara Trump described the former president as upending politics and the Republican Party since he announced his 2016 campaign, contending “he’s welcomed so many people into our tent,” particularly people who “maybe never saw themselves as Republicans.” By picking Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his vice presidential nominee, for example, her father-in-law tapped somebody who “shares his same vision for this country,” she said.

“They have a lot of similarities,” the amateur recording artist said. “But I think that J.D. is a good balance for him in a lot of ways. … He started out very poor, obviously had substance abuse issues in his family. He can relate to a lot of the things that people in this country are struggling with right now. I think he brings that to this ticket as well.”

“He wanted somebody who could carry on, maybe it’s a legacy, but I really think it’s just his vision for the future of this country, putting America first,” she added. “J.D. certainly is going to be the best person for that.”

Trump Jr. advocated publicly and privately for the former president to choose Vance as his running mate instead of a compromise selection, such as Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) or Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), as he and other advisers help position Donald Trump for the 2024 bid and post-presidency. Appeals to more establishment Republicans have been muted during the convention, with ex-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley receiving a mixed reception.

Both Lara Trump and Trump Jr. have been rumored to be considering their own political careers, with Wyoming Republicans encouraging Trump Jr. to contest their state’s Senate seat in 2020 before the Pennsylvania GOP did the same for their commonwealth’s Senate seat in 2022. North Carolina Republicans made similar overtures to Lara Trump for their Senate seat that cycle too.

Most recently, Barron Trump, his father’s youngest and only child with third wife, former first lady Melania Trump, has become politically active, the crowd welcoming him to his first rally last week in Florida with a standing ovation.

“Man, they make it all so nice for us in politics. Why wouldn’t we want to get more involved?” Lara Trump joked. “My father-in-law, I think, knew whenever he decided to come down that escalator in 2015 and announce he was running for president, this was so much bigger than him. He sat down actually with all of us as a family, and he said, ‘Listen, I’m going to do this, but it’s not just going to be about me. It’s going to be about all of us.’”

“I don’t think any of us in those moments actually knew what that would look like,” she said. “For those of us in our family, it was really about getting out and pushing back on some of the character attacks on him. And here we are today. It’s been sort of a natural, you know, ascent for so many of us in the family. I think that we are so proud to be by his side in this fight.”

Donald Trump closed the second night of the Republican convention on Tuesday by providing delegates on the floor and potential GOP voters watching at home with personal testimony about the former president, a previous responsibility of Ivanka Trump.

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“When I look at Donald Trump, I see a wonderful father, father-in-law, and, of course, grandfather to my two young children, Luke and Carolina,” Lara Trump said. “It’s through that lens that we sometimes wish more people could see this is a man who has sacrificed for his family and a man who has truly sacrificed for his country.”

“I have seen this man dragged through hell and back,” she continued, adding, “Yet he has never backed down” to chants of “We love Trump.” “So tonight, to my father-in-law, I want to say thank you for your resilience, thank you for continuing on, thank you for raising wonderful kids, thank you for being an amazing grandfather, thank you for never giving up on me, and thank you for never giving up on our country.”

MILWAUKEE — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders compared taking her son to the White House for “Take Your Kid to Work Day” to first lady Jill Biden encouraging President Joe Biden to remain commander in chief, despite his debate performance, during her address to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“When I was President Trump’s White House press secretary — the best job — I got the chance to take my four-year-old son Huck to bring your kid to work day, much like Jill now drags Joe to bring your husband to work day,’” Sanders told the crowd Tuesday.

Reflecting on last weekend’s assassination attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump, Sanders said her one-time boss “holds the future in his hands.”

“Not even an assassin’s bullet could stop him,” she added. “God Almighty intervened because we are one nation under God, and he certainly wasn’t finished with Donald Trump.”

In a speech that echoed her appearances earlier Tuesday at a National Federation of Republican Women luncheon and Moms for Liberty town hall, Sanders quipped that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris cannot explain what it means to be a woman.

“The Left loves to talk about the war on women, but the only war that I see being waged is from the far-Left against the conservative, strong women in this country,” Sanders told the lunch. “And when they learn that you are a Trump-supporting Republican woman, they’ll attack you even more relentlessly.”

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“Believe me, because I’ve been on the receiving end of those attacks as governor and as President Trump’s press secretary,” she said. “But like all of you, I know how to tough it out. No nasty comment is going to stop us from protecting women’s sports or banning offensive, nonsense words like birthing person and pregnant people.”

After the debate, the Biden campaign confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the first lady and the president’s family implored him to remain in the race, regardless of Democrats’ concerns regarding his age and mental acuity. During the debate, the incumbent repeatedly lost his train of thought and did not effectively prosecute the political case against Trump.

MILWAUKEE — In the absence of former first daughter Ivanka Trump, Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and now co-chair of the Republican National Committee, provided personal testimony as to why Donald Trump should be commander in chief again during her address to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“When I look at Donald Trump, I see a wonderful father, father-in-law and, of course, grandfather to my two young children, Luke and Carolina,” Lara Trump told the convention in its closing speech Tuesday. “It’s through that lens that we sometimes wish more people could see this is a man who has sacrificed for his family and a man who has truly sacrificed for his country.

“I have seen this man dragged through hell and back,” she said, adding “yet he has never backed down” to chants of “We love Trump.” “So tonight to my father-in-law, I want to say thank you for your resilience, thank you for continuing on, thank you for raising wonderful kids, thank you for being an amazing grandfather, thank you for never giving up on me, and thank you for never giving up on our country.”

Lara Trump, who is married to Eric Trump, was promoted to RNC co-chair with former North Carolina Republican Chairman Michael Whatley after the South Carolina GOP primary cemented the former president’s place as the party’s presumptive nominee and previous chairwoman Ronna McDaniel stepped down.

Lara Trump’s remarks concluded the second night of the Republican convention, which focused on safety and unity, with appearances from former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).

Trump reflected on last weekend’s attempt on the life of her father-in-law with the Washington Examiner earlier Tuesday, calling it “terrifying” and recalling how the moments afterward felt “like an eternity.”

“A millimeter’s difference and we would be having a very different conversation, and I think he knows that too,” Trump said. “I don’t think you go through something like that without it having an impact and really, I think changing you… He has seen maybe something different in his role and how he can impact the country in the world right now, and I think he’s taking that very seriously.”

Trump defended the former president encouraging the crowd gathered in Butler, Pennsylvania to “fight, fight, fight” before the Secret Service whisked him to a secure location.

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“For him to stand up and put his fist in the air and say that was so much bigger than that rally or people who were tuning in,” she said. “It was really about this country and showing America he was ok, and really giving a message to the rest of the world that, in some ways I see it as really he’s kind of the personification of America. And yes, we get knocked down. Yes, we have hard times. We always get back up, we always fight, we always rise to the occasion.”

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner had prominent roles in the former president’s administration and were among his closest advisers, but have supported his second reelection campaign from afar, citing their own three children.

MILWAUKEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) swiped at Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention after his California counterpart put his signature on a bill prohibiting teachers from being required to advise parents if their child has changed their gender identity.

“Honestly, I wasn’t surprised. I’d assumed that they had already done that,” DeSantis told a Moms for Liberty town hall in Milwaukee on Tuesday. “I did this debate with him last fall, and he was trying to say that California respects parents’ rights. And I said that’s interesting because you have a policy where minor children from other states are allowed to travel to California behind their parents’ back and get gender transition hormones and surgery. How the heck is that respecting those parents’ rights?”

“Why are they doing this? Because they view, ultimately, the state and the state-imposed ideology to be supreme, and so if you as a parent want to raise your kids in a way that departs from that state-mandated ideology, they’re going to claw back your rights and your privileges to do so,” he said.

Elon Musk announced an hour before DeSantis sat down onstage for a panel discussion alongside Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) that he was relocating the headquarters of SpaceX and X from California to Texas in protest of the new law. Musk reportedly has a transgender child from whom he is estranged.

“This is the final straw,” Musk wrote on X. “Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.

“I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children,” he added.

X will move to Austin, Texas.

DeSantis and Newsom’s debate during the 2024 Republican primary was considered a possible preview of the 2028 election cycle.

Newsom signed the bill on Monday after seven Californian school boards started requiring teachers to inform parents if their child decides to use another name or pronoun.

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A Newsom spokesman pointed the Washington Examiner to a tweet from the governor when asked for a response.

“You bent the knee,” Newsom wrote on social media.

MILWAUKEE — Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) rallied conservative women on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump prepare to make their pitches to women before the first presidential election after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“The Left loves to talk about the war on women, but the only war that I see being waged is from the far Left against the conservative, strong women in this country,” Sanders told a National Federation of Conservative Women luncheon Tuesday on the sidelines of the confab. “And when they learn that you are a Trump-supporting Republican woman, they’ll attack you even more relentlessly.

“Believe me, because I’ve been on the receiving end of those attacks as governor and as President Trump’s press secretary,” she said. “But like all of you, I know how to tough it out. No nasty comment is going to stop us from protecting women’s sports or banning offensive, nonsense words like ‘birthing person’ and ‘pregnant people.’”

Democrats are hoping abortion will once again be a wedge issue at the ballot box this November as it was for the 2022 midterm elections, in which Biden’s party outperformed expectations, despite poor economic indicators.

Sanders told reporters afterward she remained confident in Trump’s ability to appeal to women, though many of them backed former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley during the primary.

“President Donald Trump is going to get the majority of women because he’s the one that’s actually doing things that empower and help women and American families,” she said.

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The National Federation of Republican Women is part of the Republican National Committee and its grassroots outreach and organizing strategy, according to NFRW political director Nikki Beaver.

“NFRW has strike forces of volunteers from around the country that will be deploying to the battleground states to knock on doors, make phone calls, and talk to voters on the importance of this election and how important their vote is,” Beaver told the Washington Examiner. “Women are being called the defining factor in this election and NFRW will be delivering the women’s vote for Trump.”

As more elected Democrats call for President Joe Biden to step down as the party’s nominee, every public appearance he makes before next month’s Democratic National Convention will double as a political test, strategists warn.

But next week’s Republican National Convention, during which former President Donald Trump will announce his vice presidential nominee, could provide Biden with a respite from the pressure. Already, attention has turned from his political struggles following an apparent attempt to assassinate Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Democrats concerned about Biden’s chances against Trump this election have until Aug. 19 to convince him to stand aside as the presumptive nominee who controls almost all of the party’s delegates, with Biden’s interview with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday representing his next test and counterprogramming for first night of the Republican convention. That is potentially another month of Democrats criticizing their own candidate and helping Republicans cut ads before November, strategists say.

The fact that Trump and his campaign are “just sitting and laughing at all of this is infuriating,” according to one of those Democratic strategists, Jim Manley, a long-time aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Trump has underscored that Biden is his preferred rival this fall.

“What’s going is not sustainable — and the idea that every few days there is a new threshold that he is going to have to meet is ridiculous,” Manley told the Washington Examiner. “He met the low bar that was set last night, but what’s next? House and Senate Democratic leaders need to make a decision one way or another and act as quickly as possible.”

To that end, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) met with Biden Thursday night after the president’s highly anticipated press conference on the sidelines of the 75th NATO summit in Washington and “expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the caucus has shared in our recent time together,” per his letter to other House Democrats. The White House and Biden campaign confirmed the sit-down but did have their own read-outs.

The Biden-Jeffries meeting also took place on the same day of a report that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told donors since Biden’s debate against Trump last month that he is open to replacing the president as the Democratic nominee, in addition to three of Biden’s most trusted advisers failing to win over Senate Democrats worried about the president’s electoral prospects during a separate briefing.

Schumer later revealed that he had a meeting of his own with Biden on Saturday, simply calling it a “good meeting” in a brief statement.

“I need more of the kind of analytics that show the path to success,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters after the Senate meeting. “Joe Biden has to go to the American people — not just in one meeting, one press conference, one speech — but consistently and constantly. Tonight will be important. The press conference will be potentially a turning point.”

The shooting at Trump’s rally, in which a bullet appeared to graze the former president but he avoided major injury, has consumed headlines and will likely carry into the convention when it begins on Monday. Lawmakers have major questions about the security lapses that allowed the incident to happen, while the motives or identity of the shooter have not yet been revealed.

However, Biden has scheduled more than one interview during the convention, the NBC interview on Monday and a sitdown with BET on Wednesday, that could revive the political controversy over his fitness. A drip-drip of statements calling on him to step aside has dogged his campaign since the debate.
  
A Biden world source was emphatic that the president passed the test presented by this week’s press conference, organized in response to Democrats who have encouraged him to appear in more unscripted, less stage-managed moments. The source contended Biden not only reminded the public about his record and the other policies he would like to implement if he is reelected, but he also contrasted himself with Trump, despite mistaking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin and Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump. More than 22.5 million people watched Biden answer questions for an hour at the Walter E. Washington Center in downtown D.C., Nielsen Media Data found.

Although the source disliked the use of the word “test” and stressed that, as president of the United States, Biden is always under intense scrutiny, the person told the Washington Examiner he does have to prove his dynamism to Democratic critics. The pressure would only be eased during the Republican convention if Biden were not campaigning himself, but he will be, the source also asserted.

GOP operatives, such as Republican National Committee spokeswoman Anna Kelly, previewed the convention as a platform for Trump to appeal to people “across the political spectrum with his agenda to lower costs, secure the border, and restore peace through strength.”

“Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s weakness, failure, and dishonesty have made him one of the least popular presidents in history, and now, his disastrous record is only compounded by his clear cognitive decline,” Kelly told the Washington Examiner. “Americans won’t forget Biden’s daily gaffes and memory lapses, just like they won’t forget his failed record when they vote for President Trump on Nov. 5.” 

With Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) telling Biden during Friday’s call between the president and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that he should step aside as the Democratic nominee, 19 Democrats have now implored Biden to do the same. After speaking with top Democratic congressional allies, governors, and mayors, including the Congressional Black Caucus, the president also talked with the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus on Friday, with plans to phone the Congressional Progressive Caucus and New Democrat Coalition on Saturday.

“The president has said repeatedly he is in this to win, he is the Democratic nominee, we’re going to defeat Donald Trump in November because Democrats are going to be united in taking down threats posed by Donald Trump,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One for the president’s trip to Michigan on Friday. “Joe Biden has been making gaffes for 40 years. He made a couple last night. He’ll probably continue to do so.”

After Michigan, a must-win battleground state, Biden heads to Texas on Monday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin before travelling to Nevada. Once in the Silver State, the president will address the 115^th NAACP National Convention on Tuesday and the UnidosUS Annual Conference on Wednesday as he makes his own appeals to voters.

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the itinerary as an opportunity for Biden to speak directly to the country, particularly those who have not “heard specifically from him, on even his health, even the debate,” as well as a way for him to hear directly from them about their issues.

“That’s the best way to do this,” Jean-Pierre told reporters this week. “That’s the best way to get out there. That’s the best way to make sure that you have your finger on the pulse and that the American gets people get to see you for themselves.”

President Joe Biden condemned political violence as “sick” during an impromptu address to the nation after former President Donald Trump survived a shooting during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

From a police station in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where Biden is spending the weekend, the president said he had tried to reach his Republican opponent by telephone, but so far the pair had not connected.

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick. It is one of the reasons we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this,” Biden said Saturday.

When asked whether he believed it was an assassination attempt, Biden told reporters travelling with him that he had “an opinion but I don’t have any facts.”

In an earlier statement, Biden repeated that he was “grateful to hear” that Trump is “safe and doing well.”

“I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information,” he wrote. “Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety. There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it.”

The announcement that Biden would address the nation was paired with an accompanying one from the campaign that it is “pausing all outbound communications and working to pull down our television ads as quickly as possible.”

Biden was in a church service when the gunshots rang out at the Trump event six hours away, departing at 6:19 p.m.

Roughly 30 minutes later, the White House told reporters Biden had received an “initial briefing” on the incident, with a second one provided at 7:10 p.m. by Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, Biden’s White House homeland security adviser. White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and top aides Steve Ricchetti and Annie Tomasini were also in attendance.

The White House circulated Biden’s statement at 7:52 p.m. before his address to nation at 8:13pm.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was in Philadelphia earlier Saturday, has similarly been briefed, according to her staff.

“I have been briefed on the shooting at former President Trump’s event in Pennsylvania,” Harris wrote in her own statement. “Doug and I are relieved that he is not seriously injured. We are praying for him, his family, and all those who have been injured and impacted by this senseless shooting.”
 
“We are grateful to the United States Secret Service, first responders, and local authorities for their immediate action,” she said. “Violence such as this has no place in our nation. We must all condemn this abhorrent act and do our part to ensure that it does not lead to more violence.”

The Trump campaign has confirmed that the former president is “fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility.”

“President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told reporters. “More details will follow.”

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The Secret Service has “implemented protective measures” around Trump and that he is “safe,” per a Secret Service statement.

“This is now an active Secret Service investigation and further information will be released when available,” agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi added.

If President Joe Biden was searching for evidence he should drop out, he did not find it during a Trump-style raucus rally in Michigan on Friday night.

At Detroit’s Renaissance High School, the same host of the 2020 Democratic primary rally during which he promised to be a “bridge” to the party’s next generation of leaders, Biden did not stop repeated chants of “Lock him up!” regarding Trump and criticized the press, eliciting “boos” from the raucous crowd.

“I’m just saying, you may have noticed that since the debate, the press and they’re good guys and women up there, they have been hammering me,” he told the event. “Trump has gotten a free pass.”

Biden did try to intercede when the crowd turned on a pro-Gaza protester in a state with one of the country’s most populous Arab and Muslim American communities amid the Israel–Hamas war.

“Folks, look, I understand her passion,” he said. “That’s why I put together a detailed plan that the U.N. has accepted, that the Israelis have accepted, that the Palestinians have accepted. … This war must end.”

Biden also debuted new political attacks on Trump, contending he did not realize you could go bankrupt running a casino.

“Doesn’t the house always win?” he quipped. “Poor Donald, he can’t even watch TV this week because it’s ‘Shark Week.’”

Biden similarly mocked Trump for mistaking former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and onetime House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

But after Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) on Friday became the 19th Democrat to implore Biden to step down as the party’s nominee, the president was greeted with energetic chants of “Don’t you quit!” and “We’ve got your back!”

“I know I look 40, but I’m a little bit older,” he said. “Hopefully with age comes a little wisdom. And here’s what I know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how and I’ve demonstrated how to do this job. And I know Americans want a president, not a dictator.”

The reception comes after Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last week that people with whom he was speaking on the campaign trail were encouraging him to remain the Democratic standard-bearer, despite the polls.

During this week’s press conference, his latest political test after the debate, Biden workshopped his response to questions about polls from denying his poor position to asserting that they are premature.

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“If your team came back and showed you data that [Vice President Kamala Harris] would fare better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?” one reporter asked.
 
“No, unless they came back and said, ‘There’s no way you can win,’” he said. “No one is saying that.  No poll says that.”

President Joe Biden‘s campaign quipped that the president has been making verbal missteps his entire career when quizzed on mistakes he made during the 75th NATO summit.

“Joe Biden has been making gaffes for 40 years. He made a couple last night. He’ll probably continue to do so,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told reporters Friday. “Our opponent is somebody who recently out on the stump called for a bloodbath if he loses, is pledging to rule as a dictator on day one, and pledging to ban abortion nationwide across the country.”

“If voters watched the totality of that press conference, they saw the president lead on the global stage, talk about complex issues, the ways in which he has rallied [the] West after Putin’s invasion, the ways in which he has been working on securing a ceasefire framework in the Middle East,” he said. “They saw him present a clear choice against the opponent, Donald Trump, who just laid out all the fundamental threats he poses to the American people.”

The Biden campaign surprised critics this week when it circulated on social media a video clip of Biden confusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with Russian President Vladimir Putin before correcting himself.

Former White House and 2020 Biden campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield defended her successors’ decision, contending the clip provided context.

“BECAUSE IT FULLY CAPTURES THAT HE CORRECTED HIMSELF AND JOKED ABOUT IT,” Bedingfield posted on X. “I understand the increased scrutiny on his performance; I do not understand treating this obvious misspeak like a five alarm fire.”

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president,” he said.

Trump immediately mocked Biden for the misidentification, writing online that the president did a “great job.”

When asked as he was departing the press conference for his response, Biden flipped his typically “watch me” reaction.

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“Watch him,” he said.

Biden is on the campaign trail in Michigan on Friday before traveling to Texas on Monday, where he will be interviewed by NBC’s Lester Holt, and Nevada on Tuesday and Wednesday. Despite his steadier performance during his press conference compared to last month’s shaky debate, another House Democrat, Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA), told the president he should step down as the party’s nominee.

President Joe Biden reiterated his intention to remain in the 2024 race during his highly anticipated press conference on the sidelines of the 75th NATO summit, but his nearly hourlong performance failed to stop defections from his party.

Although his strongest moments from the press conference were foreign policy related, it is the questions that linger regarding his political strength domestically against former President Donald Trump before November’s election that had another House Democrat, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), immediately add his voice to the chorus of members of his own party calling on him to step down as their nominee at its conclusion. He was quickly followed by Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Eric Sorensen (D-IL) urging Biden, 81, to end his reelection campaign.

Despite repeating that he would seek reelection, Biden was candid about having to prove himself to Democrats by making more unscripted appearances and taking part in fewer stage-managed events during the White House dubbed “big boy” press conference at the Walter E. Washington Center in downtown Washington, D.C. But he also called on a preapproved list of 11 reporters, who peppered him with questions about his political future to the future of Russia’s war against Ukraine, at times having trouble reading from that list.

Biden’s response to the opening question, a query from Reuters about whether Vice President Kamala Harris could succeed him, was quickly seized on by Trump and his team after the incumbent confused his No. 2 with his Republican opponent.

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if she was not qualified to be president,” Biden told reporters. “There’s a long way to go in this campaign, and I’m going to keep moving.”

The second question mentioned a similar mistake he made earlier in the day when he confused Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the launch of the Ukraine Compact.

Biden underscored that he was running for president again not for his legacy but because he wanted to “complete the job” he embarked on almost four years ago. He then dismissed a question about reports he told Democratic governors last week he would try to end his public schedule by 8 p.m. before downplaying the need to take a cognitive test after seeing his neurologist in February.

“That’s not true; what I said was, instead of my every day starting at 7 and going to bed at midnight, it could be smarter for me to pace myself a little more,” the president said of the report. “By the way, I love my staff, but they add things. They add things all the time. They’re catching hell from my wife.”

“Where’s Trump been? Riding around on his golf cart and filling out his scorecard before he hits his ball?” he added.

Biden criticized Trump, too, during his opening remarks, which he read from a teleprompter, stumbling over “Kyiv” when alluding to Ukraine and clearing his throat multiple times.

“For those who thought NATO’s time had passed, they got a rude awakening with Putin invaded Ukraine,” Biden said, adding Trump “had made it clear he has no commitment to NATO” nor an “obligation to honor Article 5.”

“America cannot retreat from the world,” he continued. “It must lead the world. We are the indispensable nation, as Madeleine Albright wrote.”

Democratic responses to the press conference were tepid, though expectations were lowered by Biden’s debate last month that triggered the power struggle.

Former Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who was among the first to call for Biden to step down, said his performance had moments of coherence and incoherence.

“[Biden] added fuel to the fire with calling Zelensky ‘Putin’ and Harris ‘Trump.’ That will dominate media and be in ads with a billion dollars behind them,” Ryan told the Washington Examiner. “All in all, he made matters much worse, not better. … He gave them a lot more ammunition.”

For onetime Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) staffer Christopher Hahn, Biden “was clearly better at the press conference compared with the debate,” but he did not believe it changed “the minds of those concerned about his ability to wage a campaign and serve another four years.”

Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin added the press conference was “OK” but “certainly not great.”

The press conference became a pressure test for Biden’s leadership after Democrats, including those in Congress, urged the president to prove himself after the Atlanta debate. An interview last week with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, who has since personally expressed doubts about Biden, only exacerbated concerns after the president became defensive and defiant, denying he was behind Trump in the polls and that members of his own party were imploring him to step down. He has another interview booked with NBC’s Lester Holt while he is in Texas on Monday, scheduled to air during the first night of the Republican National Committee, this cycle in Milwaukee.

With at least 17 congressional Democrats now calling for Biden to step down and longtime Biden White House and now campaign advisers Mike Donilon, Steve Donilon, and Jen O’Malley Dillon unable to convince wavering Democrats in the other chamber with a briefing Thursday, the president’s path forward is unclear. Only Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) has encouraged Biden to step down on his side of the Capitol.

Although the sit-down “allayed” some concerns of senators, such as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), it “deepened others,” according to the chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

“I need more of the kind of analytics that show the path to success,” Blumenthal told reporters. “Joe Biden has to go to the American people — not just in one meeting, one press conference, one speech — but consistently and constantly. Tonight will be important. The press conference will be potentially a turning point.”

The Biden campaign had earlier tried to address that specific complaint, circulating a memo that explained Biden’s “clearest” path back to the White House as being through the so-called blue wall of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. But that path has become less clear since the debate, with polls emphasising those states are within the margin of error.

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“In addition to what we believe is a clear pathway ahead for us, there is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump,” O’Malley Dillon, the campaign chairwoman, wrote with campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez on Thursday. “Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter. The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden.”

Biden is expected to travel to Michigan on Friday before heading to Nevada and Texas next week.