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

While all eyes are on President Joe Biden in Washington, Vice President Kamala Harris has been campaigning in the battleground state of North Carolina.

She has, yet again, defended Biden, saying that the “last few days have been a reminder that running for president of the United States is never easy”.

“Nor should it be,” she told a campaign event in Greensboro.

“The one thing we know about our president, Joe Biden, is that he is a fighter. He is a fighter and he is the first to say, ‘When you get knocked down, you get back up.’ ”

US President Joe Biden is due to start speaking shortly at a much anticipated press conference, which is running late (it was due to start at 8.30am AEST).

These sorts of appearances from 81-year-old Biden are rare, but detracting from the gravitas of such an occasion is the fact the White House has been billing it as his “big boy” press conference.

Here’s a compilation of clips of press secretaries calling it that, from The Daily Show.

US President Joe Biden’s political woes were also the hot topic of debate on the sidelines of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue in Washington this week, attended by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, Assistant Defence Minister Matt Thistlethwaite, and opposition home affairs minister James Paterson.

Speaking shortly after he arrived in Washington this week, Marles threw his support behind Biden, praising the global alliances forged under his administration and the focus he has placed on the Indo-Pacific.

“We could not be more pleased with that, and we’re certainly very pleased about the focus that the Biden administration has placed on the Indo-Pacific, and on the issues which are front and centre for Australia,” he said.

“We are seeing strong leadership by America … and that is absolutely critical in terms of the challenges that the world faces today.”

On the sidelines of the dialogue, Thistlethwaite acknowledged that the debate around the president’s viability as a candidate was something “you can’t avoid” in the US, but added, “That’s a matter for the American people.

“The strength of our alliances has always been based on bipartisanship and working with any government of respective stripes that occupies the White House,” he told this masthead. “That tradition will continue.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is at the NATO summit and held discussions with Biden, says anyone could have made the same mistake.

“It happens to everyone to have a slip of the tongue, it happens to me,” he told reporters.

Macron said in his conversations with the US president that Biden was detailed and precise.

I remember leaving a recent announcement from US President Joe Biden asking myself the same questions I’d been asking for months. Can he really do another four years in this job? Is he actually going to make it to election day? Why don’t Democrats have a Plan B?

Sure, his scripted remarks started steadily enough, but it didn’t take long before his voice became so soft that it sounded, in parts, like he was mumbling. His gait seemed stiffer than ever before, which according to his doctor is the result of an arthritic spine and a past foot injury.

And from my vantage point in the middle of the room with other selected members of the press, there was no passion in his delivery, just the tones of a “well-meaning elderly gentleman” that many Americans fear is no longer up to the task of being their commander-in-chief.

Like many people his age, Biden has often experienced times in which he has mangled a sentence or made the occasional gaffe. (Mind you, so, too, has Trump, 78, who, unlike the president, never had to overcome a childhood stutter.)

But, in recent years, these occurrences have become far more frequent and far more worrisome, giving Trump and his allies ample ammunition to undercut the president’s significant legacy of policy achievements.

Read US correspondent Farrah Tomazin’s full take on how Biden has performed over her time covering him and what it means for the Democrats’ bid to win a second term in the Oval Office here.

Today was meant to be a victory lap for US President Joe Biden. Having rallied NATO against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US president had just spent the week hosting its 32 members at a Washington summit marking the 75th anniversary of the alliance.

He reaffirmed his commitment to Ukraine’s defences, held a bilateral meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky and met NATO’s Indo-pacific partners – Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the Republic of South Korea.

But instead of ending the summit on a high note, Biden capped off the three-day event with a blunder at a “Ukraine compact” event, in which he introduced Zelensky as “President Putin”.

Once upon a time, you could probably pass that off as yet another Biden gaffe, in a career full of them. But ahead of such a high stakes press conference, it’s not exactly going to instil confidence in America’s oldest president.

Ahead of his much anticipated press conference later this morning, US President Joe Biden mistakenly used the name of Russia’s president when introducing the president of Ukraine at the NATO summit.

“Now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” he said, but quickly picked up his gaffe.

“President Putin? He’s going to beat President Putin. President Zelensky.”

Then, in an effort to explain the gaffe, Biden said, “I’m so focused on beating Putin.”

“I’m better,” Zelensky replied.

“You’re a hell of a lot better,” Biden said back.

US President Joe Biden’s news conference at the NATO summit amounts to a make-or-break moment in his quest to quiet a drumbeat of concerns at home and abroad about his 2024 presidential campaign.

Biden was dealt fresh blows ahead of the press conference, as The New York Times reported that some of his advisers have discussed ways to persuade him to step down as the nominee and that his campaign was polling voters on a hypothetical head-to-head match-up between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Those developments will only intensify persistent doubts from party members about his ability to defeat Trump in November and serve another four years, despite a weeks-long effort to shore up support. Biden’s top political advisers met senators on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon in a bid to calm lawmakers who have spent recent days all but pushing Biden to consider dropping out of the race.

Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said some of his concerns were allayed in the meeting, while others were deepened. He would not elaborate.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran against Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary, expressed confidence in the president. “Joe Biden is going to win this election,” he said.

Separately, the number of House Democrats calling on Biden to withdraw rose to more than a dozen, including Ed Case of Hawaii and Greg Stanton from Arizona.

Bloomberg