Biden: 'I will not step aside', but calls Zelensky Putin

But in an egregious gaffe - not the only one - he called Vice-President Harris 'Vice-President Trump' when referring to her as 'Vice-President Trump'. A slip aggravated by the fact that only a few hours earlier, at the NATO summit, he had introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as 'President Putin', then corrected himself. Some of the responses at the press conference also seemed stilted or inconclusive and off-topic.

The missteps were enough to persuade three other Democrats to defect, asking him to drop out in favour of an alternative and younger candidate. To date, defections from the President's camp amount to at least 17 Congressmen and one Senator, more are expected while the silence of numerous Democrats on Biden's candidacy also weighs like a boulder.

Then there are the Hollywood bigwigs, starting with George Clooney, and other big and small donors and supporters of the party who have suspended donations and called for him to step down. Polls see him trailing behind Trump especially in the most hard-fought and decisive states, and a two-thirds majority of Americans want the 81-year-old President to step down. Inside the White House itself it has emerged that examinations of Harris's strength as an alternative candidate against Trump have in fact begun, and informal discussions are underway on possible ways if necessary to convince Biden to step down.

The press conference was designed to be effective in Biden's revival effort. It could not be less than 20 minutes, which was insufficient to demonstrate solidity; if anything, it had to be protracted and full of substance to make up for the recent missteps. The risk was no small one. At the NATO summit itself, as recalled, Biden was noted for firm speeches but also slips.Biden's disinclination to hold press conferences even in the best of times is also well known. He held fewer than Ronald Reagan at the end of his presidency, when he was not in good health. And Biden's last one was last October.

Recently, in an attempt to control even the interviews, the White House had provided two radio journalists with a list of questions, triggering a storm. The absence of spontaneous and transparent moments, without teleprompters, has thus become a constant criticism. Along with the shadow of the failed debate. That TV debate against Trump wanted by Biden and turned out to be disastrous, raising doubts about his physical fragility to mental freshness for weeks now.

In this climate, Biden is likely to need repeated moments of success, far beyond a press conference that ended in a passing grade, to live up to his declaration of wanting to stay in the race. In an attempt to redeem himself, the President is now scheduled for a new TV interview with NBC Monday night, competing with the start of the Republican Convention in Milwaukee that will nominate Trump for the White House.