The Trouble with Joe Biden

The whole world has been watching. The whole world has seen Joe Biden’s deteriorating mental state. Yet, the White House has insisted that Biden has no problems, that he is just as sharp as he has always been.

When Annie Linskey et al. wrote a recent article in the Wall Street Journal revealing that Joe Biden is not really on his game, the White House attacked her reporting and denied the story.

When the world witnessed photos of a doddering old man, a man suffering from senile dementia, the White House declared that the photos had been faked.

The con was rolling along, and then it hit a massive pothole. The gaslighting was exposed, in the most cruel fashion, when Joe Biden took the stage to debate Donald Trump last Thursday. In truth, anyone who had any perspicacity would have guessed it would go badly. Why do you think that Biden had not been doing news conferences?

Now, Linskey has a new article where she explains that for those who had had direct contact with Biden, none of this is surprising. In her new piece, published yesterday in the Journal, she especially emphasizes that the European officials who had been dealing with Joe Biden had come away worried that he was losing it.

She reports:

European officials had already been expressing worries in private about Biden’s focus and stamina before Thursday’s debate, with some senior diplomats saying they had tracked a noticeable deterioration in the president’s faculties in meetings since last summer. There were real doubts about how Biden could successfully manage a second term, but one senior European diplomat said U.S. administration officials in private discussions denied there was any problem.

Naturally, the White House denied the reports:

“Foreign leaders see Joe Biden up close and personal,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. “They know who they are dealing with, how effective he has been, and how important his leadership is on the world stage.”

Among the signs of deterioration, in the recent G7 summit:

Biden missed the summit’s dinner party in a medieval castle, an off-camera and less- scripted part of the summit in which leaders often exchange views more candidly. He was the only G-7 leader not to attend the meal; the White House told reporters in advance he wouldn’t be there because it would be a “jam-packed two days” of meetings. Biden instead held an event with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and had a news conference.

The White House denied the obvious:

Two senior European officials cited a European Union-U.S. summit in October in Washington at which Biden struggled to follow the discussions. Both said he stumbled over his talking points at several moments, requiring Secretary of State Antony Blinken to intervene and point out the lines he should use. 

Europeans have not bought the spin:

“The reading in Europe is that this has been an unmitigated disaster,” said Nathalie Tocci, director of the Institute of International Affairs in Rome and a former adviser to the EU’s foreign-affairs chiefs, referring to Biden’s attempts to reassure voters worried about his age. European officials and prominent commentators, she added, “have been talking about it. It’s something that has been known, always, that his age is his main Achilles’ heel.”

European leaders were not surprised by Biden’s debate performance:

In the hours after Thursday’s debate, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters that the Democrats have a problem.

“I was afraid of this. It was to be expected that in a direct confrontation, in a debate, it would not be easy for the president,” said Tusk, who has known Biden for years. Asked what he thought of proposals to replace Biden with another candidate, he said: “They definitely have a problem. The reactions have been unambiguous.”

Remember Biden’s last forays on the world stage:

When Biden was in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day in June, he struggled. During a bilateral meeting in Paris with Zelensky, Biden spoke so softly that reporters brought in to document the meeting between the two men couldn’t initially hear the American president. Zelensky, a non-native English speaker, could be heard clearly.

Major contributors have been dismayed by the Biden presentation:

Contributors have for months privately raised concerns about Biden’s lack of spontaneity in settings with his biggest supporters. 

At a September 2023 fundraiser in New York, Biden retold the same anecdote twice—leaving at least one attendee shaken and worried about his age. In February, Biden used a teleprompter at a fundraiser in Los Angeles, and questions were screened in advance, according to a person familiar with the matter—frustrating some donors who had expected a more free-flowing exchange.

During a May fundraiser in Washington state, Biden appeared to lose his train of thought as he talked about Israel and at one point paused for five seconds before continuing, according to a pool report from a journalist who attended. Biden said: “The cease-fire would begin tomorrow. It all has to do…you know, we’ve not…anyway, I guess I shouldn’t get into all this about Israel but…”

As of this morning, it is not assured that Joe Biden will stay in the race. Those who think he should intone that he is fundamentally a decent human being. One would like to hear the views of Tara Reade on that score.

And yet, for what it is worth, Michelle Obama has conspicuously refused to campaign for Joe Biden. The reason, Axios tells us, is that she does not consider him a decent human being.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama privately has expressed frustration over how the Biden family largely exiled her close friend Kathleen Buhle after Buhle's messy divorce from Hunter Biden, two people familiar with the relationship told Axios.

So, Michelle Obama has chosen to make manifest her loyalty to a friend, a friend who was mistreated by the Bidens. Rarely these days do we see such shows of good character. Three cheers for Michelle Obama.

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