Joe Biden press conference LIVE updates: Fresh blow for president ahead of make-or-break moment

Joe Biden just talked up the importance of AUKUS. Underpinning this is the fact that it’s still not clear what a future Trump administration might mean for AUKUS, the multibillion-dollar pact between the US, Australia and the UK to help Australia acquire nuclear-propelled submarines.

When I asked Defence Minister Richard Marles earlier if he was concerned about the future of AUKUS should there be a change of administration, he pointed to the bipartisan support that the initiative had received so far, including the legislation passed by Democrats and Republicans to implement it.

“We are confident that whatever happens in November in America, we will continue to have a strong alliance with the United States, and the key equities that we have in that alliance will be able to be maintained,” he said.

Nonetheless, Marles spent part of his trip in Washington meeting Trump Republicans to shore up ongoing support for the deal as the world braces for another potential shake-up of American leadership on November 5.

US President Joe Biden said European leaders want him to win the upcoming election, adding the prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency worried Europe.

“How can I say this without sounding too self-serving? I am not – I have not had any of my European allies come up to me and say, ‘Joe don’t run.’ What I hear them say is, ‘You’ve gotta win, you can’t let this guy come forward, it would be a disaster,’ ” he said.

Biden pointed out that Trump has said foreign policy was not his strong suit.

“He seems to have an affinity to people who are authoritarian. That worries Europe. That worries Poland, and nobody, including the people of Poland, think if he wins things will stop in
Ukraine and that will be the end of it,” Biden said of Trump.

“What I can say is, I think I am best qualified person to do the job, to make sure Ukraine is not – that Ukraine succeeds, that the European alliance stays strong.”

Being the president of the United States is a tough job, and Joe Biden has been asked whether he is up for it in the next year, or two years, given his limits.

He denied he had limits but acknowledged he needed some adjustments following his “stupid mistake” in the recent debate with former president Donald Trump.

“The limits I have acknowledged?” he asked the reporter.

“There is reporting that you have acknowledged that you need to go to bed earlier and end your evening around eight,” the reporter said.

“That is not true. What I said was, instead of my every day starting at 7 and going to bed at midnight, it would be smarter for me to pace myself a little more,” Biden replied.

“I said – instead of starting a fundraiser at nine, start it at eight and people go home by 10. That is what I am talking about.

“If you looked at my schedule since I made that stupid mistake in the debate, my schedule has been full bore.”

Asked whether he has been thinking about his legacy, and what it would mean for that if he stayed in the presidential race, Joe Biden said he was focused on continuing his work.

“I am not in this for my legacy, I am in this to complete the job I started,” he said.

He continued:

“If you recall, understandably, many of you, many economists thought my initial initiatives that I put forward - you can’t do that, it will cause inflation and things will skyrocket and the debt will go up. What are you hearing now from mainstream economists?

“Sixteen economic noble laureates said I have done a hell of a job and under my plans so far and what is going to happen in the future, if I am re-elected, things will get much better, our economy is growing.”

Joe Biden begins his press conference reading scripted remarks off a teleprompter, talking up his role in rallying the west against Putin’s aggression.

His voice is still a little husky, and he stumbled briefly in the opening moments – but it’s worth noting that Biden has overcome a childhood stutter, which occasionally reappears when he reads teleprompters and tries to rush through his words.

The unfortunate thing is that these very stumbles are now going to be scrutinised heavily (and selectively edited by Republicans on social media).

US President Joe Biden has started his press conference with a statement, lauding the importance of the NATO alliance now in its 75th year.

“It has worked because a would-be aggressor knows if they attack one of us, they
will be attacked by all of us,” he said.

“For those who thought NATO’s time passed, they got a rude awakening when [Russian President Vladimir] Putin invaded Ukraine. Some of the oldest and deepest fears in Europe roared back to life because, once again, a murderous madman was on the march but this time no one cowered in appeasement, especially the United States.”

Biden then detailed the work of his government in standing up to Russia’s aggression.

US President Joe Biden addressed the media at the NATO summit earlier. It comes after a gaffe in which he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “President Putin”.

During the press conference, he mistakenly referred to Kamala Harris as “vice president Trump”.

Watch a replay of the press conference below: