Did Joe Biden repeat his debate performance at last night's press conference, and give Democrats a reason to stage an intervention?

No.

Did Joe Biden give anyone -- and especially Democrats -- any reason to think that the debate was just "one bad night"?

No.

Instead, Biden showed more coherence and grasp on the issues in the questions, which primarily consisted of foreign policy and Biden's cognitive capacities. However, Biden tired noticeably during the one-hour Q&A, got lost in some of his answers, and didn't give anyone the impression that he has the stamina for a presidential campaign this year, let alone four more years in office. Immediate feedback from Capitol Hill on CNN made it clear that Biden hadn’t changed the direction of the momentum to push him off the ballot. 

One camp was delighted with the result, however:

If @JoeBiden wanted to actually change anyone’s mind about his capacity, he would sit down for an hour w/ ⁦@jonathanvswan⁩ pic.twitter.com/MRGvtZGOeD

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) July 12, 2024

And well should Trump be delighted. While Biden’s performance won’t change the minds of those Democrats who want him off the ticket, it wasn’t bad enough to get other Democrats to abandon him, at least not yet. Biden managed to do just well enough to limp to the next challenging milestone, perhaps to the Lester Holt interview on NBC Monday evening — a recorded and edited interview, of course. 

So how bad was it? It wasn’t horrible, and only had one major gaffe:

Q: "What concerns do you have about Vice President Harris' ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?

President Biden: Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if I didn't think she was not qualified to be vice president. pic.twitter.com/TqqSKBsyQu

— CSPAN (@cspan) July 11, 2024

Paul Begala told Anderson Cooper that “anyone could do that,” but … come on man. Biden made a similar gaffe before the presser when he introduced Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin,” a mistake that no one could make. At least, no one not suffering from some level of cognitive decline.

Apart from those, though, Biden didn’t make substantive and glaring errors, although he certainly lied and exaggerated plenty. Biden (and Trump) does that routinely, and has for decades. Biden just came across as tired, and while his initial energy level was better than at the debate or in the George Stephanopoulos interview last week, it dropped off considerably about halfway through. 

That was unmistakable, and probably predictable, given the 90-minute delay to the start of the presser. The sundowning effect was less but not absent, and could be measured by a sharp increase in Biden’s verbal tics of late — “anyways,” “the idea,” “look,” etc. He got lost in his own answers more often as the presser progressed, and his voice grew softer, even when not doing his weird “whisper into the mic” routine, which also made several appearances in the second half of the presser.

At best, Biden remained composed, except for one answer when he weirdly began shouting about gun deaths, which wasn’t the topic of the question he’d been asked. But nothing about the performance gave any evidence that this 81-year-old man could keep up with the job now, let alone for the next four years, or even four months.

Politico summed up the Democrats’ nightmare scenario not long after the end of the presser:

President Joe Biden delivered a steady performance at a high-stakes press conference Thursday but still fell short of assuring jittery Democrats concerned about his future, prolonging painful questions across the party.

But minutes after the press conference wrapped up, at least two more Democratic lawmakers called for Biden to step aside — a sign his problems are far from over. 

"Today I ask President Biden to withdraw from the presidential campaign,” Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), wrote in a statement obtained by POLITICO. “The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course.” Just minutes before, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, also called on Biden to step aside in a post on X.

Those weren’t unexpected. In fact, rumors have swirled that a few dozen Democrats have already decided to call for Biden to withdraw, but didn’t want to undercut his authority during the NATO summit. Biden’s presser won’t convince any of those Democrats to reverse themselves and endorse him, but it’s likely just good enough to keep more Democrats from joining their ranks … at least until the next Biden collapse.

That means a frozen situation and an ongoing crisis. In truth, it’s tough to see what Biden could have possibly done to make everyone forget his debate performance, but Biden didn’t come close to it. Democrats who made last night’s presser the decision point for the Biden nomination now have to realize that there will be no real resolution to their crisis, especially not one that restores broad confidence in Biden’s cognitive competence and stamina. And that just leaves Democrats stuck waiting for the next disastrous demonstration from Biden of his physical and cognitive decline.