At the NATO summit in Washington on Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden promised to vigorously protect Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, hoping to demonstrate to friends both domestically and internationally that he is still capable of leading.
While some of his fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill and campaign funders worry that Biden, 81, will lose the Nov. 5 election following a lackluster debate performance on June 27, he has been subjected to searing questions about his suitability for government for the past 12 days.
“(Vladimir) Putin wants nothing less, nothing less than Ukraine’s total subjugation… and to wipe Ukraine off the map,” Biden said, addressing the Russian president, as he welcomed NATO members to the conference. “Ukraine can and will stop Putin.”
With his most prominent policy speech since the debate, the White House is hoping he can close the book on a challenging time in his presidency, though some summit diplomats expressed concern that the damage was difficult to repair.
Tuesday’s speech by Biden was delivered using a teleprompter, but he mostly stayed away from the grammatical errors and expressions of bewilderment that characterized his debate performance.
The stately walls of the federal hall where the NATO treaty was signed framed Biden, and the U.S. Marine Corps band provided powerful musical interludes between his remarks.
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