President Joe Biden worked to put fears about his age and fitness to rest with a rousing press conference at the NATO summit, where he demonstrated a commanding grasp of foreign policy issues, took potshots at former President Donald Trump, and reiterated his commitment to remain in the presidential race.
But for the first time, suggested CNN political commentator David Chalian, there seemed to be a slightly different tone about that commitment.
"Did the president put concerns about his candidacy to rest tonight?" asked Anderson Cooper.
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"Well, certainly not," said Chalian. "He obviously was up there for nearly an hour and was able to speak on a variety of topics, but he spoke in the way we've come accustomed to hearing Joe Biden. Certainly nothing that resembled what occurred on the debate stage, but obviously still at times rambling at times, mixing up words. That last question you heard about at the very top of the presser, mixing up saying Vice President Trump instead of Vice President Harris."
"But I think, Anderson, what was most telling for me from this — you ask the question, did he, did he assuage concerns?" said Chalian. "He actually himself acknowledged that he is still on a mission of trying to allay concerns, as he said, and I thought that was very telling. Because a week ago in that George Stephanopoulos interview, we heard a defiant President Biden. We heard somebody who said, this conversation about whether I'm going to be the nominee or not is over. I have decided. He said that at the Wisconsin rally last Friday ... my observation was he was in a bit of a different headspace tonight. He certainly said I'm keeping on. We are going to keep on moving through this. He said he is going to continue to run this race, but it was a different tone on that stuff that seemed to open the idea."
"He said, he doesn't think he's the only one that can beat Donald Trump," Chalian continued. "He said nobody yet has presented him with presented him with evidence that he doesn't have a viable winning path to the presidency. But that still may come. That seems to me that he was sort of opening up some metrics that he's willing to consider, perhaps this was not a president who was shutting down the notion and the conversation, or a president and that seemed unaware that his party is still looking for him to grapple with this decision and they don't consider it closed. And I think tonight we saw him in a different headspace about this."
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David Chalian breaks down Biden's NATO press conference www.youtube.com
