This will be the first time he will be facing the press, taking questions from them first time since November — also first time after the June debate which raised calls from the Democrats to change the candidate.
The CNN debacle was followed by the ABC News interview which also did little to control the damage. But amid all these, there were occasions where Biden appeared resolute and defiant.
Biden passed the first Nato fitness test as he appeared assertive and coherent on Tuesday in his speech. Thursday is a bigger test for him as he will be closing out the Nato summit and take questions.
Biden’s health and daily scheduled have come on the radar as his aides defended the dismal performance by saying that Biden functions the best between 10 to 4 daytime window. It was also reported that Biden told Democratic governors that he need to sleep more and that he would limit his public events after 8pm.
Some Democrats have suggested that putting Biden into the public eye more often would help ease concerns.
Over the course of his three-and-a-half years in office, Biden has held fewer press conferences and interviews combined than presidents dating to Ronald Reagan in the 1980s at the same point in their presidency, data by presidential scholar Martha Joynt Kumar showed. He has held an average of 10.5 press conferences per year, compared to 22 per year for Trump and 35.5 for George H.W. Bush, according to an analysis by the University of California at Santa Barbara. Reagan had fewer with 5.8 per year.
Biden answered more questions than either Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, but fewer than either George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and far fewer than Trump.
After Thursday’s news conference, Biden’s next big interview will be with NBC anchor Lester Holt on Monday.
“There will be a lot of eyes on every move Biden makes,” said a Democratic strategist with close ties to the White House. “There’ll be closer scrutiny – everything he says and does.”
Biden’s top aides are thinking about performance hurdles and his day-to-day appearances in three phases: Get through a big speech on civil rights in Austin, Texas on Monday, then the Democratic convention in Chicago where Biden is to be formally nominated in mid-August and from there the final push to Election Day on Nov. 5, a source with direct knowledge said.
(With agency inputs)
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