Takeaways from Biden’s critical solo news conference

Washington CNN —

President Joe Biden on Thursday participated in the most high-stakes news conference of his political career on the sidelines of the NATO summit, aiming to convince his detractors and supporters that he is able to serve another four years in office.

Biden spoke for just under an hour, calling on 10 reporters and answering 19 questions.

Here are some takeaways from the news conference.

Performance serves as a Rorschach test for nervous Democrats

Biden’s performance likely won’t change many minds – Democrats who want Biden to step down are able to jump on a notable verbal gaffe he made at the beginning of the news conference, while Biden’s supporters will point toward the time he spent deftly answering a variety of questions on foreign policy.

Toward the beginning of the question-and-answer, Biden mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as former President Donald Trump. It was exactly the type of slip-up the White House and Biden’s campaign presumably would have feared amid mounting questions surrounding his mental acuity.

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

The president did not correct himself. He made a similar mistake earlier in the day, accidentally calling Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky “President Putin” while introducing him during a NATO event.

But Biden quickly moved on, and he spent the rest of the news conference lobbing in-depth answers about questions including Russia, Israel and his economy, offering deep answers on dealing with China and US policy around Ukraine’s fight against Russia.