WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden downplayed concerns about his presidential campaign, but a series of high-profile gaffes during the NATO summit on Thursday renewed concerns about his age and acuity threatening his presidential campaign.

Biden drew gasps — and instant mockery online — when he mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin at an event on the sidelines of the NATO summit.

He then mistook his vice president, Kamala Harris, for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during the answer to his first question at his highly scrutinized news conference.

"Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president — did I think she's not qualified to be president?" Biden said. "So let's start there. No. 1, the fact is that the consideration is that I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president."
Biden subsequently downplayed his verbal miscues, pointing to world leaders who had praised the NATO conference as successful.

But the news conference was a crucial test for Biden's teetering campaign, and perhaps a final chance for the beleaguered president to demonstrate his competence and acuity before world leaders and lawmakers departed Washington.

As he wrapped the news conference, the 81-year-old leader was confronting more calls to step aside. In a statement released shortly after he walked offstage, Connecticut Rep. firn Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Biden should end his candidacy, considering his "remarkable legacy in American history."

Fifteen other House Democrats have called on him to make way for a new candidate.

Biden's misstatements followed reporting earlier Thursday by The New York Times that several long-time advisers to the president were discussing ways to persuade Biden to exit the race — and that his campaign is polling how Harris would fare against Trump if she were to take over the top of the ticket.

Spokespeople for Biden insisted his team remained behind him, but the signal that the president's own confidants may be joining the chorus of outside lawmakers, donors, and strategists calling on Biden to exit the race amounted to a potentially terminal blow after a bruising week.

Biden repeatedly signaled his steadfast intention to stay in the race, despite the mounting calls on him to step aside.

"I'm not in this for my legacy. I'm in this to complete the job I started," Biden said.

He also brushed aside concerns voiced by his allies that his mental and physical decline is irreversible because of his advanced age.

"If I slow down and can't get the job done, that's a sign I shouldn't be doing it, but there's no indication of that yet, none," Biden said.

Wary lawmakers

The president said his schedule had been "full bore" and that he needed to pace himself, while noting his staff added lots of events to his schedule. But he said he compared favorably to Trump, mocking his opponent’s proclivity for playing golf.

"What I said was, instead of my — every day starting at seven and going to bed at midnight, what I said was, it'd be smarter for me to pace myself a little more," Biden said.

"Where's Trump been? Riding around on his golf cart? Filling out his scorecard before he hits the ball?" he added.

Trump lampooned Biden's mistake in a post on his social media site Truth Social, writing: "Great job, Joe!"

Top White House and campaign officials were dispatched to Capitol Hill on Thursday in a bid to shore up wary lawmakers. Many trickled out of a luncheon for Democratic senators declining to answer questions about the president posed by reporters.

The huddle came a day after two of Biden's closest congressional allies — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — appeared to be nudging Biden toward the door.
Pelosi told MSNBC that Biden, who for days has flatly declared his intention to remain in the race, needed to decide "if he is going to run."

Axios reported that Schumer privately signaled to donors he was open to Biden dropping out, though the New York senator subsequently said he backs the president.

Other former Biden allies were less restrained. Actor George Clooney called on the president to exit the race just weeks after co-hosting a $30 million fundraiser for the president.

In an effort to bring together anxious lawmakers with Biden's team, Schumer organized a meeting to discuss concerns and the path forward, but some senators groused they would prefer to hear from the president himself. In the Senate, only Peter Welch of Vermont has so far called for Biden to step out of the race.

The 90-minute conversation with the president's team, which one person said included no new data, polling or game plan on how Biden would beat Trump, did not appear to change senators' minds. The person was granted anonymity to discuss the closed door session.

The meeting was frank, angry at times and also somewhat painful, since many in the room know and love Biden, said one senator who requested anonymity to discuss the private briefing. Senators confronted the advisers over Biden's performance at the debate and the effect on Senate races this year.

One Democrat, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, said afterward: "My belief is that the president can win, but he's got to be able to go out and answer voters' concerns. He's got to be able to talk to voters directly over the next few days."

Waning support

Two-thirds of Americans, including a majority of Biden's own supporters, want the president to end his bid, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, even though he was essentially running neck-and- neck with his Republican opponent. Roughly 85 percent of those surveyed said Biden was too old for a second term.

And Biden drew further fire after Milwaukee radio station host Earl Ingram — who previously acknowledged using questions provided by the president's campaign — had edited out remarks in which he touted having "more Blacks in my administration than any other president."

The station said Biden's campaign asked to have the segments removed.

Hopeful messaging from Biden’s campaign did not appear to stem the bleeding. After some lawmakers implored Biden's team to explain how his campaign remained viable, top advisers released a memo calling the contest "a margin-of-error race" in battleground states and saying there is "no indication" another Democrat would run better against the Republican.

The document said Biden still has a path to victory through the so-called "Blue Wall" states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Biden's performance at the NATO summit also did little to stop the torrent of bad news.

Allies described Biden as livelier and more engaged than at recent gatherings of world leaders. New U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended Biden's abilities, telling the BBC the U.S. president was "on good form" in their White House meeting Wednesday.

Despite the mounting pressure on Biden, critics have few options to force him from atop the ticket.

Biden holds a commanding delegate lead ahead of the Democratic convention in August. He has repeatedly said he has no interest in stepping aside.

The president will continue his rescue mission in the coming days, starting with a trip Friday to Detroit for a campaign event.