Democrats and the GOP had wildly different perspectives on President Joe Biden’s highly anticipated NATO Summit news conference, with Republicans dubbing the event another campaign win in Trump’s back pocket and Democrats having mixed reactions.

Even so, there was a tone shift among some Democrats who thought Biden’s performance was ‘strong.’ One Democratic activist went so far as to say he believes there are ‘people who owe President Biden an apology’ after the president’s press conference. The comments come after Democrat lawmakers and pundits alike have either called on Biden to drop out of the race or expressed concerns about his aging.

Meanwhile, a Trump campaign official told Fox News Digital after Thursday night’s press conference, ‘It appears Biden did enough to convince his apologists that he should remain on the ballot, but he also reinforced what the American people know.’ 

‘Their lives are being hurt by his weakness and failure on a daily basis,’ the source said.

Donald Trump Jr., who is a top surrogate for this father, said on his Rumble livestream that Biden did ‘fine enough to be able to stay in it’ but later shared a social media post that blended the faces of Trump and Harris together and said ‘Vice President Trump.’

Veteran Republican consultant Dave Carney told Fox News the news conference ‘couldn’t have been better’ for Biden.

Biden started out earlier in the day stumbling when he introduced Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as ‘President Putin’ at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. He immediately caught his gaffe and corrected himself. However, later during the evening press conference, he also referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘Vice President Trump’ and did not correct himself.

During and after the press conference, Biden’s immediate team and many of his allies were quick to tout the event as an overwhelming success. A source familiar with the workings of the Biden campaign also said that Biden had exceeded expectations with a thorough discussion of foreign policy.

The source added, however, that the press conference alone won’t ultimately convince voters but that continued campaigning and travel by Biden should.

Some Democrats claimed that the president’s answers regarding foreign policy issues showed him to have expertise in international affairs.

‘To answer the question on everyone’s minds: No, Joe Biden does not have a doctorate in foreign affairs. He’s just that f—ing good,’ White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates wrote in a post to X.

Joel Rubin, a former State Department official during the Obama administration, considered Biden’s performance to be ‘very strong.’

‘This is a very strong performance. Quite frankly. ⁦@POTUS⁩ is putting on a master class in how foreign policy and domestic policy intersect, explaining how crucial American global leadership is to our people here at home. Well done, Mr. President,’ Rubin wrote in a post on X.

Democrats remain largely divided on whether Biden should suspend his re-election campaign and allow another candidate to go head-to-head with Trump in November. On Friday, Fox News confirmed that another House Democrat, California Rep. Mike Levin, has joined the chorus of lawmakers calling on Biden to step aside.

At least 10 House Democrats and one in the Senate have publicly called on Biden to end his re-election bid, and a growing number of both House and Senate Democrats have publicly and privately warned that the president will lose to Trump in November.

Fox News Digital’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and Paul Steisenhauer contributed to this report.

Democrats and the GOP had wildly different perspectives on President Joe Biden’s highly anticipated NATO Summit news conference, with Republicans dubbing the event another campaign win in Trump’s back pocket and Democrats having mixed reactions.

Even so, there was a tone shift among some Democrats who thought Biden’s performance was ‘strong.’ One Democratic activist went so far as to say he believes there are ‘people who owe President Biden an apology’ after the president’s press conference. The comments come after Democrat lawmakers and pundits alike have either called on Biden to drop out of the race or expressed concerns about his aging.

Meanwhile, a Trump campaign official told Fox News Digital after Thursday night’s press conference, ‘It appears Biden did enough to convince his apologists that he should remain on the ballot, but he also reinforced what the American people know.’ 

‘Their lives are being hurt by his weakness and failure on a daily basis,’ the source said.

Donald Trump Jr., who is a top surrogate for this father, said on his Rumble livestream that Biden did ‘fine enough to be able to stay in it’ but later shared a social media post that blended the faces of Trump and Harris together and said ‘Vice President Trump.’

Veteran Republican consultant Dave Carney told Fox News the news conference ‘couldn’t have been better’ for Biden.

Biden started out earlier in the day stumbling when he introduced Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as ‘President Putin’ at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. He immediately caught his gaffe and corrected himself. However, later during the evening press conference, he also referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘Vice President Trump’ and did not correct himself.

During and after the press conference, Biden’s immediate team and many of his allies were quick to tout the event as an overwhelming success. A source familiar with the workings of the Biden campaign also said that Biden had exceeded expectations with a thorough discussion of foreign policy.

The source added, however, that the press conference alone won’t ultimately convince voters but that continued campaigning and travel by Biden should.

Some Democrats claimed that the president’s answers regarding foreign policy issues showed him to have expertise in international affairs.

‘To answer the question on everyone’s minds: No, Joe Biden does not have a doctorate in foreign affairs. He’s just that f—ing good,’ White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates wrote in a post to X.

Joel Rubin, a former State Department official during the Obama administration, considered Biden’s performance to be ‘very strong.’

‘This is a very strong performance. Quite frankly. ⁦@POTUS⁩ is putting on a master class in how foreign policy and domestic policy intersect, explaining how crucial American global leadership is to our people here at home. Well done, Mr. President,’ Rubin wrote in a post on X.

Democrats remain largely divided on whether Biden should suspend his re-election campaign and allow another candidate to go head-to-head with Trump in November. On Friday, Fox News confirmed that another House Democrat, California Rep. Mike Levin, has joined the chorus of lawmakers calling on Biden to step aside.

At least 10 House Democrats and one in the Senate have publicly called on Biden to end his re-election bid, and a growing number of both House and Senate Democrats have publicly and privately warned that the president will lose to Trump in November.

Fox News Digital’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and Paul Steisenhauer contributed to this report.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, reiterated to reporters that she still supports former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for president despite Haley no longer being in the race for the Republican nomination. 

The Maine Republican will write in Haley’s name on her ballot in November rather than former President Trump or President Biden, according to local CBS reporter Dan Lampariello. 

Collins’ office confirmed to Fox News Digital her plan to vote for Haley. 

A spokesperson for the Maine senator noted she has previously said she’d be supporting Haley and not Trump. 

‘I will not be voting for either candidate. I am going to write in Nikki Haley’s name,’ Collins said, according to another local outlet. 

The Republican senator previously endorsed Haley late in the Republican primary, calling the candidate ‘extremely well-qualified.’

‘She has the energy, intellect and temperament that we need to lead our country in these very tumultuous times,’ Collins said of Haley. 

However, Haley exited the primary race soon after the endorsement. 

The former South Carolina governor’s departure from the race didn’t change Collins’ position though. 

‘I cannot support former President Trump. I voted to convict him on the second impeachment charges, so I don’t think it should come as a surprise that I cannot support him,’ she said in March, weeks after Haley had already suspended her campaign. 

As Collins pointed out in the spring, she was one of seven Republican senators in 2021 who voted to convict Trump for allegedly inciting insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when some of his supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol. 

And while Trump has become the clear Republican nominee and is slated as of now to take on Biden in November, it’s apparent Collins’ mind has not changed on the situation. 

Trump’s campaign did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital. 

The Biden campaign is taking a victory lap after President Biden’s highly anticipated NATO press conference on Thursday, claiming he not only met expectations but surpassed them.

A Biden campaign official told Fox News Digital that Biden’s performance was what the American people were looking for and praised the president’s insightful responses to questions that went into great detail on foreign policy, including the Russia-Ukraine War, China and other topics dealing with foreign affairs.

The campaign also believes that the performance proved Biden can handle Trump and believes that substance over style matters, and it matters to voters who will ultimately be swayed by the actual merits of what the two candidates are saying.

Biden, according to the campaign, articulately laid out the economic progress under his watch and discussed complex foreign policy issues in a way that Trump is unable to do.

Biden, during the press conference, was also peppered with questions from reporters who pressed him on whether he would step aside amid mounting pressure from members within his own party following his disastrous debate performance last month.

Despite the glowing review, the campaign source acknowledged that one night, be it a debate or a press conference, will not significantly move the needle in terms of votes and voters will instead be moved by robust campaigning, knocking on doors, phone calls, advertisements and campaign travel, which Biden plans to do more of in the coming weeks as part of a ‘full bore’ schedule.

Biden said he is ‘determined’ to stay in the race and maintained that he is fit to serve as president now and for the next four years. 

While some Democrats rushed to defend Biden’s NATO press conference, Republicans pointed to gaffes from the day, including a response from Biden where he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘Vice President Trump.’ Biden also introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as ‘President Putin’ shortly before the press conference before correcting himself seconds later.

‘President Putin? He’s going to beat President Putin. President Zelenskyy. I’m so focused on beating Putin,’ Biden said. ‘We got to worry about it. Anyway, Mr. President.’

The Trump campaign told Fox News Digital that it views the highly anticipated and much-scrutinized news conference as a win-win for the former president.

‘It appears Biden did enough to convince his apologists that he should remain on the ballot, but he also reinforced what the American people know. Their lives are being hurt by his weakness and failure on a daily basis,’ a Trump campaign official, who asked for anonymity to speak more freely, told Fox News Digital.

A large majority of Americans want Biden to drop out of the race, including a majority of his own supporters, according to a Thursday poll from ABC News and The Washington Post that was released ahead of his press conference.

 A full 67% of respondents said Biden should drop out of the race, and 85% say he is too old to serve out a second term. Meanwhile, 60% of respondents also said former President Trump is too old for a second term, up from 44% in the spring of 2023.

Biden has remained defiant in the face of calls for him to step down, and a campaign spokesperson aboard Air Force One on Friday said that donations on the night of the NATO press conference were significant.

‘Since last night we’ve seen a strong support across our coalition,’ the campaign said. ‘Most importantly, we see it with our grassroots base. We had close to 40,000 donations last night alone. Donations exploded during the president’s press conference. In fact, we’ve hit 7 times our average during the press conference.’

The campaign also pushed back against critics who highlight Biden’s long track record of gaffes by releasing a two-minute video highlighting Trump’s mishaps on the campaign trail in an attempt to paint him as ‘feeble.’

Fox News Digital’s Kyle Morris, Brooke Singman and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

First lady Jill Biden’s former press secretary blasted the White House communications team’s narrative on Thursday, saying they live in an ‘alternate universe’ after a senior official praised President Biden’s performance at a NATO press conference.

‘There are two different versions of reality in my party right now,’ Michael LaRosa, who served as first lady Jill Biden’s press secretary, wrote on X on Thursday night in response to a post from Republican communicator Sarah Matthews criticizing the White House’s senior deputy press secretary, Andrew Bates.

‘The below is an alternate universe that MOST of us Dems are NOT actually living in. Being coherent in his FIRST ‘big boy press conference’ of 2024 is not exactly the bar most of us are looking for…. but clearly it’s the bar for Biden set by his own staff … and that is pretty ‘f—ing’ terrifying.’

Matthews had criticized Bates for a post on X he made following President Biden’s highly anticipated NATO press conference on Thursday night where the senior staffer said, ‘To answer the question on everyone’s minds: No, Joe Biden does not have a doctorate in foreign affairs. He’s just that f—ing good.’

‘1) Literally no one is asking that question right now,’ Matthews wrote on X. ‘2) It’s beneath the office to say ‘f—ing’ from your official White House account. Do better.’

‘Everyone evaluated POTUS’s performance based on how they wanted to feel or how they already felt about the situation,’ LaRosa told Fox News Digital. 

‘Andrew’s exuberance, which is what Sarah was responding to, is an example of the division within the Democratic Party right now, unfortunately. But that’s Andrew’s job — and he’s very good at it. His whole purpose is to drink the kool-aid surrounding the boss and make sure everyone else is gulping down too. If I were Biden or any other lawmaker or candidate, there’s no one I’d rather have watching my back than Andrew Bates.’ 

 ‘But for those of us in the party and outside the White House now, it’s our responsibility to decipher the rhetoric from the reality. The reality is, and I said this to Jesse Watters before the debate, that no one has ever questioned or doubted Joe Biden’s command of complex and nuanced domestic or foreign policy,’ Larosa continued. ‘He can run circles around the media, his opponents, or members of Congress on substance or his record. That’s not what the noise or conversation is about. The bar the President hasn’t been able to clear and the reason why Democrats in Congress are anxious is because they feel he hasn’t met or cleared the bar for matters of presentation, agility, and sharpness.’

LaRosa said he fears ‘that sometimes people around him unintentionally lower the bar for the President.’

‘He’s a former Chair of Senate Foreign relations, a former Vice President, and current President who has met with leaders all over the globe,’ LaRosa said. ‘He’s been negotiating with the Russians since he was in his mid-thirties. We’re not giving him enough credit when we create standards that are frankly beneath him. It’s a distraction from the reality of the challenge in front of us, as Democrats, and in moments of political crisis, there need to be folks on the outside who can put the kool-aid aside for a bit and drink some water.’ 

The X post from Bates also sparked strong criticism from conservatives on social media.

‘Dude he confused Harris and Trump right after he mixed up Zelensky and Putin,’ Abigail Jackson, communications director for Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., posted on X, referencing a Biden gaffe shortly before the press conference.

‘Literally no one is asking that question right now,’ conservative communicator Steve Guest posted on X.

‘The question on my mind is what’s wrong with these people,’ journalist Josh Barro posted on X.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Biden, who is facing increased calls from elected officials within his own party to drop out of the race due to concerns about his age, was widely criticized by Republicans over his NATO press conference performance. However, longtime GOP strategist Mike Biundo, a former Trump adviser, told Fox News Digital that he believed ‘it’s a 100% win-win’ for Republicans and the Trump campaign.

‘It appears Biden did enough to convince his apologists that he should remain on the ballot, but he also reinforced what the American people know. Their lives are being hurt by his weakness and failure on a daily basis,’ a Trump campaign official, who asked for anonymity to speak more freely, told Fox News Digital after Thursday night’s press conference.

Several Democrats and progressives defended Biden’s performance along with Bates.

‘Tonight Joe Biden offered a lengthy, detailed dive on the major national security issues he’s juggling combined with a comfortable but forceful defense of his view of where this race stands,’ Kate Bedingfield, a former communications director for Biden, posted on X. ’50 minutes of Qs. He needed to show up big tonight and he did.’

‘This is a very strong performance,’ Joel Rubin, a former State Department official during the Obama administration, posted on X. ‘Quite frankly. ⁦@POTUS⁩ is putting on a master class in how foreign policy and domestic policy intersect, explaining how crucial American global leadership is to our people here at home. Well done, Mr. President.’

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is touting unity within his party as the House GOP’s campaign arm celebrates breaking a record in election year fundraising.

‘This week, House Democrats voted to let illegal aliens vote in American elections, voted against protecting girls sports and fell further into disarray following their role in the greatest political cover-up in history when it comes to President Biden’s fitness for office,’ Johnson told Fox News Digital. ‘At the same time, House Republicans passed commonsense legislation and put up record-setting fundraising numbers to grow our majority.

‘As Republicans head to Milwaukee to nominate President Trump, our party has never been more united, energized and equipped with the resources needed to win up and down the ballot.’

It comes as the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the House GOP’s campaign arm, announced it raised $37 million in the second quarter of 2024, its highest-ever election year total for that time period.

The NRCC also said it had the best June on record, with $14.3 million of that total number coming in one month alone.

It’s served to further push back questions over whether Johnson can match the fundraising prowess of his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Johnson himself brought in $23.5 million in the second quarter of 2024.

His numbers, along with the NRCC’s total and the House GOP leadership-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund’s announced $46.4 million raised, mean House Republicans have added over $100 million to their war chest in this time period.

The haul also comes before the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Wisconsin, where former President Trump will be formally declared the party’s nominee for November.

Republicans’ confidence in keeping and possibly expanding their razor-thin House majority appears to have shot through the roof over the last two weeks as Democrats deal with the fallout of President Biden’s disastrous late June debate performance.

The 81-year-old leader’s poor showing against Trump has raised concerns among members of his own party over whether he can win again in November and serve another four years.

It prompted 17 House Democrats and one Democratic senator to call on Biden to withdraw from the race.

But the quarter ended June 30, and the debate took place June 27, so a fuller picture of its impact on GOP fundraising will likely be seen in the beginning of the second half of the year.

When asked about his advice for Republican candidates as they watch Democrats in turmoil, Johnson told Fox News Digital Thursday, ‘We need to be talking about the answers we have to all the great challenges that have been created by the policies of the Biden administration.

‘Our candidates have (done) very well in going out and presenting those answers in a very credible way. We feel very good about what we’re doing,’ Johnson said.

House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), responded to Johnson’s Friday statement: ‘The DCCC has consistently outraised the NRCC this cycle because we have authentic candidates with real records of results, while extreme Republicans simply sow chaos – pushing to ban abortion nationwide and raise taxes on the middle class. This reality is why polling consistently shows Democrats outrunning their Republican opponents across the battleground.’