Biden could not allow this while continuing a campaign, it undercuts him on his age/cognition and makes it look like Kamala is actually calling the shots. Thus, this is a strong signal that he’s dropping out.
He either says “a black man,” or “the black man,” and either way he can’t remember his name. Also the fact that we cannot clearly understand the spoken words of the POTUS is a problem unto itself.
Not to mention that Rupar himself says that the correction he is making is that Rupar believes Biden said “a black man” vs “the black man” and acknowledges that Biden could have spoken more clearly:
Yeah he definitely says a “black man” but it’s not like he saying that because that’s how he refers to him he just listing off black members of his administration I assume in context of a question that would make it relevant
The issue is it comes out super awkward because he couldn’t get his name out so there is “pause pause pause secretary of defense (pause) a black man” which sounds way worse than “secretary of defense Austin, a black man.”
Her delivery is much better now than in 2020. If she can avoid excessive head nodding and too many hand gestures (if you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing) she’s solid.
NYT makes it sound like Pelosi is the one who actually had the guts to press Biden hard enough to get through.
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former speaker and one of the president’s most loyal supporters, has told him that she is pessimistic about his chances, marshaling her knowledge of the political map, polling data and fund-raising to press her case. In a recent call, when Mr. Biden insisted he had polls showing he could win, Ms. Pelosi said “put Donilon on the phone,” so she could cite her own polls showing the opposite — a direct challenge to the president and an implication that he was not being fully informed.