Joe Biden vowed to stay in the presidential race and defended his fitness for office in a high-stakes press conference on Thursday, defying mounting calls from Democratic lawmakers and party donors for him to abandon his re-election bid.
Speaking at the end of the Nato summit in Washington, Biden said he was best qualified to defeat Donald Trump in the November election and still had time to recover from what he called the “stupid mistake” of his damaging debate performance two weeks ago.
“I beat him once, and I’ll beat him again,” the 81-year-old said of his 78-year-old predecessor and Republican rival. “There’s a long way to go in this campaign, I’m just going to keep moving.”