Biden faces more calls to quit race

President Joe Biden faced more calls from fellow Democrats to abandon his re-election bid yesterday, following a news conference in which he delivered nuanced responses but occasionally stumbled over his words.

It was unclear whether Biden's performance would convince doubters in his party that he is their best bet to defeat Republican Donald Trump in the November 5 election and serve another four-year term in the White House.

At least 17 congressional Democrats so far have called for him to drop out and allow the party to pick another standard-bearer, including some who announced their positions after the Nato news conference on Thursday night.

The New York Times reported that unnamed donors have told a pro-Biden Super PAC that roughly $90 million in pledges will remain on hold as long as he remains in the race.

But Biden made clear that he did not plan to step aside.

"If I show up at the convention and everybody says they want someone else, that's the democratic process," Biden said, before shifting to the stage whisper he often uses for emphasis to add, "It's not gonna happen."

Biden perhaps did not reassure those who were spooked by his poor presidential debate performance against Trump on June 27.

At one point, he referred to his vice president, Kamala Harris, as "Vice President Trump". That came just hours after he introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "President Putin" at the Nato summit, drawing gasps from those in the room.

Biden occasionally garbled his responses at the news conference, yet he also delivered detailed assessments of global issues, including Ukraine's war with Russia and the Israel's offensive in Gaza, that served as a reminder of his decades of experience on the world stage.

Some Democrats were not reassured.

"We must put forward the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump's promised MAGA authoritarianism. I no longer believe that is Joe Biden," said Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, who called on the president to end his campaign after the news conference.

A senior campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity called the performance the "worst of all worlds. Not good. But not bad enough to make him change his mind ... It'll give some enough cover to back him publicly, only to say he's not up for it privately."

On the other hand, Democratic fundraiser Dmitri Melhorn said other donors told him they saw a strong performance from the president. "This is the person who can beat Trump. The mistakes are baked in and the upside is strong," he told Reuters.

Biden was due to hold a rally yesterday in Detroit, where his campaign says he will focus on the "dangers" of Trump's agenda.