Biden finally did a press conference!

It was pretty dull and low energy, but the expectations had gotten so low that it's some kind of success. He talked about school for a long time before taking the questions, and the questions were softballs, but he kept up a flow of reasonable words. He should do more of these events. Make them normal. It will be boring, but he's got to show himself in action, even if the action is tedious.

From the transcript, beginning with the Q&A, I'll excerpt a few things that I found comparatively interesting:

Speaker 1: (13:04) Just probably on a different topic, there’s a new book by the New York Times by Michael Schmidt that says that when president Trump made an unannounced visit to Walter Reed hospital in 2019, Vice President Pence was told to be on standby to take over in case President Trump had to receive anesthesia. Pence said last night that he doesn’t recall being told that. As vice president, were you ever told to be on standby or given any kind of special alert when President Obama was going in for a medical appointment?...

Vice President Joe Biden: (13:45) I’m not going to speculate on what it means always, but I can say is that nothing this administration does is normal. And so I’m not being facetious when I say that. So who in God’s name knows what it was all about? I just don’t know. I don’t know. And I’m not going to speculate....

Speaker 2: (14:39) ... On your visit to Kenosha tomorrow, local democratic officials including the governor had previously discouraged President Trump from visiting and just yesterday, the president of the local NAACP said he didn’t want to see either of the candidates, including yourself visit. That this is such a sensitive situation in the city. Why is now the right time for you to go to Kenosha And what do you hope to accomplish tomorrow?

Vice President Joe Biden: (15:00) ... Because what we want to do is we’ve got to heal. We’ve got to put things together, bring people together.... and try to see if there’s a beginning of a mechanism to bring the folks together. We have to heal. This is about making sure that we move and we move forward....

He didn't answer the question why — if it was wrong for the President to override the requests of local officials — is it right for a candidate for President to go. Biden's answer was just to state his purpose for going, as if the preferences of local officials were irrelevant.

Speaker 2: (16:42) ... How far are you willing to push the envelope of what’s safe in order to get your message out and to be among the voters, speak to them directly?

Vice President Joe Biden: (17:12) ... we’ve worked out a protocol where, how I get in the plane, what kind of plane I get on, how it’s sanitized, how I engage people.... So I’m just trying to set the example, wearing the protective gear, the mask, which I have with me.

He holds up a mask at that point. He hadn't been wearing it.

I’m able at this distance to take it off....

Speaker 2: (18:43) ... Is there anything, you’ve said you’ll participate [in the debates], is there anything that could dissuade you from participating and how have you began to prepare?

Vice President Joe Biden: (18:58) Well, I began to prepare by going over what the president has said, multiple lies he’s told. What I’d love to have as a crawler at the bottom of the screen of fact checker when we speak.... Now I’m looking forward to debating the President....

He didn't address whether there was anything that could dissuade him from participating.

Speaker 5: (19:50) One of the things that I’ve heard a lot from voters across the country is that a lot of them are worried and concerned about some of the ongoing violence we’ve seen in cities in this country, including the situation in Kenosha, Wisconsin where you’re headed. I am curious, obviously you are not president now and Donald Trump is, but I’m curious if you were president, what would you do to ensure that people are kept safe in situations like these?

Vice President Joe Biden: (20:15) First of all, I wouldn’t incite violence. I condemn it when it occurred. I would move to, look, the vast majority of police officers are good, decent, honorable women and men. They pin on that shield every morning and they have a right to go home that night safely. The vast majority. But just those who are not good cops, all the police I’ve dealt with my whole life, and I’ve been dealing with, I’ve gotten overwhelming support from law enforcement through my whole career. They’re the ones that want to get rid of the bad cops, even more than anybody else does because it reflects on them. Number one. Number two, I would make sure everybody understood, if I were president, that any violence, any violence, protesting is a right and free speech is a right, but to engage in violence, burning, looting, the rest, in the name of protesting is wrong, and that persons should be held accountable for their actions. What I’d be doing is I’d be bringing people together in the White House, right now. I’d be having that Police Commission set up. I’d have law enforcement at the table. I’d have the community at the table. I’d have people and saying, “How do we get through this? What do we do to deal with this?” Because I believe the vast majority of the community at writ large, as well as law enforcement, want to straighten things out, not inflamed things, but this president keeps throwing gasoline on the fire, every place he goes. I noticed, and I didn’t watch much of it, but I watched the reports from all of you, not all, I from the press. When he was asked about what should be done with regard to a young man shot in the back seven times, in front of his children, I didn’t hear much of anything come from him. What should we be doing about it? He went down the line. I wish he’d take responsibility. As much as he’d like to be running against somebody else, he’s running against me, Joe Biden. The fact is, that he is not acting very responsible.

Speaker 6: (22:24) ... You’ve outlined your plan to reopen schools safely. But what about what happens in the interim? Right now, millions of parents across the country are facing this very impossible task, of trying to work full time and help their children full-time to learn virtually. What is your message to these parents and what can you do to help them while you work to reopen schools?

This question is on topic with the scripted remarks that began this press event, so Biden had a very long answer that felt rote. I'm just skipping it here, but it should be noted that this was 23 whole minutes into the ordeal and he choose to chatter away, so — some credit for energy and doggedness. There was also another school-and-covid question, which I'm skipping.

He gathers his papers and starts heading off stage, then turns back to a reporter who is calling out, and says in a slight tough-guy tone: "I know you always ask the hostile question, but go ahead." The transcript I linked to doesn't include this part, but let me summarize. Biden had said that he'd warned Trump in January that there was going to be a pandemic. "If you knew that, then why were you still hosting crowded campaign rallies in March?" The answer is that Biden had advice for the President — there was going to be a pandemic. Biden makes a distinction between the issue of whether a pandemic was coming and how it would spread, and it only gradually became clear that "We just can't continue to have these large rallies." He worked his way through the hostile question, but the most interesting revelation was that Trump asked to talk to him and the two men did talk, and Trump was "very polite."