On Wednesday, he’ll deliver a prime-time speech at 8 p.m. Eastern—significantly, a time more aligned with the time of his disastrous debate performance than his alleged preferred time to function. “From 10am to 4pm, [President Joe] Biden is dependably engaged … outside of that time range or while traveling abroad, Biden is more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued,” Axios reported last month, citing unnamed aides.
But can Biden still make the case he’s still able to be the president for the remaining six months?
Right now, the flood gates seem to be opening, the media and Democrats finally sharing, after a long era of nonsense pretending otherwise, how ill Biden is faring. “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. … He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” wrote actor and major Democrat fundraiser George Clooney in The New York Times earlier this month.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week on a 2021 meeting Biden had with House Democrats, urging them to pass an infrastructure package.
“In 30 minutes of remarks on Capitol Hill, Biden had spoken disjointedly and failed to make a concrete ask of lawmakers, according to Democrats in the room,” the Journal reported.
Rep. Dean Phillips, a Minnesota Democrat who challenged Biden in the Democrat primary, told the Journal, “It was the first time I remember people pretty jarred by what they had seen.” Significantly, Biden never again met with the House Democrat caucus to talk about legislation.
It’s not just House Democrats Biden avoided; he hasn’t had a full Cabinet meeting since Oct. 2. But don’t think the Cabinet meetings demanded mental acuity from Biden before then. “Ahead of closed-door Cabinet meetings that Biden attends, it is customary for Cabinet officials to submit questions and key talking points that they plan to present in front of Biden ahead of time to White House aides,” CNN reported, citing two unnamed sources.
Nor was this the only time earlier in his tenure as president that Biden seemed cognitively-challenged. In 2022, Biden asked at a press conference, “Jackie are you here? Where’s Jackie?” Rep. Jackie Walorski, an Indiana Republican, had died in a car accident the prior month.
The Washington Post reported that Biden “has displayed signs of accelerated aging in recent months, said numerous aides, foreign officials, members of Congress, donors and others who have interacted with Biden over the last 3½ years, noting that he moves more slowly, speaks more softly and has moments when he loses his train of thought more often than even just a year ago.”
Of course, there’s also the assessment made by special counsel Robert Hur in a Feb. 5 report, where he described Biden as “as a sympathetic, wellmeaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
That’s not exactly a great description for someone who holds the job as leader of the free world.
There’s also, of course, what we’ve all seen with our own eyes, even aside from Biden’s debate performance. Earlier this month, Biden called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that same day, referred to “Vice President Trump” instead of Vice President Kamala Harris. In a July interview with BET, Biden was unable to remember the name of his defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, calling him a “black man.”
There’s also questions about why Biden chose to announce his decision to no longer seek reelection via an oddly phrased letter on X. Why was there no photo of him signing the letter, or a video of him speaking about his decision? Why did he delay an address to the nation for several days, instead of following the example of Lyndon B. Johnson?
Sure, it’s possible that Biden was sulking about being forced out and didn’t want to jump into a suit and tie while battling COVID-19, even for a brief photo.
But it’s also possible his mental fitness was such that even the most skilled communication aides couldn’t get him to look mentally fit long enough for a quick photo or video.
Since Biden announced he would no longer seek reelection, a slew of Republican lawmakers have raised questions about his mental fitness to remain president for the duration of his term. These are valid questions. Sure, plenty of people who are mentally fit have occasional gaffes. But there is a clear pattern here—and one that has been in place far longer than Biden’s recent bout of COVID-19.
Biden, no doubt, will have had plenty of rest and time to prepare ahead of his Wednesday night address. But even the most eloquent words and forceful, energetic delivery will be hardpressed to erase what America has learned. The presidency is a 24/7 job—and delivering one speech, made at the timing of one’s choice, doesn’t suggest a 24/7 mental fitness.