(Fox News) President Biden held a high-stakes press conference Thursday evening where he doubled down on his earlier pledge to remain in the presidential race while making a few gaffes, including trailing off on his thoughts and using the word “anyway” at least nine times.
“I just got to just pace myself a lot more, pace myself. And the next debate, I’m not going to be traveling in 15 time zones a week before. Anyway, that’s what it was about,” Biden said after reporters asked him about reports he needs to go to bed earlier in the day.
“That’s what it was about. And, by the way, even with that, I love my staff. But they add things. They add things all the time. … I’m catching hell from my wife for that. Anyway,” he continued.
Biden said “anyway” at least nine times throughout the roughly 58-minute press conference, according to a transcript of the press event, sparking some on social media to joke about an “anyway drinking game.”
ANYWAY, ( drinking game) https://t.co/EWFA87QRHI
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) July 12, 2024
Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” aired a compilation of Biden’s repeated use of “anyway,” including six of the instances out of the nine found in the press conference’s transcript.
Biden’s press conference comes as concerns mount he is not mentally fit to serve another four years in the Oval Office, including 17 elected Democrats calling on the president to bow out of the race as he prepares to square off against former President Trump in November.
President Biden at a news conference during the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., Thursday, July 11, 2024. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Joe Biden’s record of public service is unrivaled,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on X after the press conference. “His accomplishments are immense. His legacy as a great president is secure.
“He must not risk that legacy, those accomplishments and American democracy to soldier on in the face of the horrors promised by Donald Trump.”
Conservatives slammed Biden on social media throughout the public event for his handful of gaffes, including holding up a list of reporters he planned to call on and appearing to confuse Vice President Kamala Harris with former President Trump, in addition to repeatedly saying “anyway.”
“This NATO press conference with Biden is another disaster. It is inexplicable the people advising this man continue to think that somehow he’s not going to humiliate himself and this country. Why do they continue to allow this to happen?” Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce posted to X during the press conference.
Allies of the president, however, considered the press event a success, remarking on social media that Biden’s delivery while answering reporters’ questions was “strong.”
