Congressional reporter Farnoush Amiri of The Associated Press told fellow CNN panelists Friday morning that “it’s a matter of when, not if” President Joe Biden steps down.
As Democrats continue to pressure him to drop his reelection bid, Biden attempted to prove his mental fitness for office Thursday evening at a solo press conference. The Hill’s national politics reporter Julia Manchester said many of her sources believe Biden’s performance at the presser “was good” yet still “not enough to stop the bleeding.”
“I think the next — coming days, today, will be definitely a bit of a test for President Biden going forward,” Manchester said. “I think, when you’re talking to a number of my sources, what I hear is that it was good — that it was better than the debate — but it’s not enough to stop the bleeding, ultimately. And that’s the issue that President Biden and Democrats have.”
CNN host Kasie Hunt asked Amiri how congressional Democrats have been impacted by Biden’s press conference performance. The congressional reporter told CNN panelists that they “expect the dam to break” soon.
“Yeah, I mean, what, you know, my sources were saying leading up to the press conference was, you know, obviously we’re hoping he does better than he did at the debate, but we expect the dam to break shortly after,” Amiri said.
“I think his performance at the debate, and many, you know, folks texted me, and called me, and said, you know, ‘I was holding my breathe, but he did not do as bad as I thought he would do,’’” she continued. “Expectations for him, you know, arguably were very low. And the calling the president of Ukraine ‘Putin’ did not set the tone right for the day and for the evening.”
“But many of them said, you know, maybe the dam will hold for a little longer, but it’s a matter of when, not if it’ll break. And I think that that’s the case right now,” Amiri said.
Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “Putin” ahead of the press conference. The president also referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump” during the presser. (‘I Don’t Think He Can Serve Four More Years’: George Stephanopoulos Gives Blunt Assessment After Major Biden Interview)
🇺🇸🇺🇦 Watch Zelensky’s reaction as Biden calls him Putin 😭 pic.twitter.com/TfVoAoryDX
— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) July 11, 2024
Q: “What concerns do you have about Vice President Harris’ ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?
President Biden: Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if I didn’t think she was not qualified to be vice president. pic.twitter.com/TqqSKBsyQu
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 11, 2024
Former Democratic President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have spoken privately about Biden and the future of the 2024 Democratic ticket, CNN reported Thursday. This comes as the Biden campaign is reportedly testing how Harris polls against presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
