Biden says he's staying in race in first news conference since debate

President Joe Biden opened his first news conference since the presidential debate Thursday by saying he’s staying in the race, amid widespread calls for him to step down from the nomination.

“The question I ask myself is, ‘Am I getting the job done?’” Biden said. “If I slow down, I can't get the job done. That's a sign that I shouldn't be doing this. But there's no indication of that yet.”

The president slipped at times, at one point referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump”, but delivered a stronger performance Thursday night than he has in other recent events. Biden delivered cogent answers, touting his strength in office and in navigating the complex global relationships like between the U.S. and ascendant superpower China.

He also hit back at Russian President Vladimir Putin, who’s still engaged in a lengthy war against Ukraine.

"I'm not ready to talk to Putin unless he's ready to change his behavior," Biden said, arguing the West cannot let Russia take Ukraine.

Speaking at the conference honoring the 75th anniversary of the creation of NATO, Biden was asked if he was approached by America’s NATO allies about stepping down amid fears he would lose to Trump and the U.S. would back out of the historic alliance.

Biden said he heard the opposite from his NATO colleagues.

“What I hear them say is, ‘You've got to win. I can't let this guy come forward, it'd be a disaster,” Biden said.

Biden also got in some shots on Trump throughout conference, saying that he’s been working much harder fulltime as president and candidate than his opponent.

"Where's Trump been? Riding around in his golf cart, filling out his scorecard before he hits the ball?" Biden said, noting he's doing much more work as president than Trump.

In a critical slip just before the press conference, Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” — but he quickly caught himself and welcomed Zelensky, then said he was determined to help Ukraine beat back Putin.

The press conference, his first since his debate performance two weeks ago, caps one of the toughest weeks for the incumbent president in his race for a second term.

National polling in the race has barely budged, with Trump gaining between one and two percentage points in the past two weeks and the dynamics seemingly baked in. However a raft of battleground state polls in must-win states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, have shown a sizable drop in support for Biden — and subsequent weighing down of the Democratic ticket writlarge.

In a high stakes meeting of Senate Democrats and top aides from the Biden campaign earlier Thursday, veteran Democrats aired their concerns privately — but largely held their fire speaking with reporters afterward.

Concerns about Biden’s debate performance were only heightened after the Supreme Court decided last week that presidents are roundly immune from prosecution for actions deemed to be an “official act”. Immediately on the heels of that landmark decision, Trump’s legal teams filed to dismiss criminal charges against him.

The specter of a greatly empowered Trump retaking the White House sparked an intraparty war among Democrats unlike anything seen in modern times.

“It became a break-glass situation after the debate,” longtime Democratic strategist and former top adviser to Barack Obama, David Axelrod, said on CNN shortly before Biden’s press conference Thursday.

Biden opened the week with a stark letter to Congressional Democrats telling them he wouldn’t be leaving the race. But new cracks in the “dam” of official Democratic support for Biden have opened steadily through the week.

The last Democratic incumbent to decline his party’s nomination was Lyndon Baines Johnson, whose exit and subsequent intraparty war opened the path for Richard Nixon in 1968.

But Democrats pushing Biden to exit have noted, in part, that his possible successor for the nomination, Harris, performs much better in polling against Trump. Harris has been given a higher profile on the campaign trail since the debate and Trump himself, at times, has trained new attacks on her.