The worst kept secret in Washington is the President’s accelerating cognitive decline. Yet, when special counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s mishandling of classified documents made note of this obvious fact, the White House responded with outrage. Hur opted not to bring charges against him for several reasons, including how a jury trial might play out: “Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” This led to a hastily called news conference, during which a semi-coherent Biden shouted at reporters as if they were attempting to take away his car keys.
He can’t get through a 13-minute press conference without shouting angrily at reporters, misidentifying the President of Egypt as the President of Mexico and misrepresenting the special counsel’s report.
Allowing Biden to face the media before he calmed down was a serious blunder by Biden’s staff. His mental health has long worried the public. An ABC News/Washington Post survey conducted two years ago found that only 40 percent of adults believed Biden possessed the “mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president.” Recent surveys show this percentage shrinking. According to an NBC News poll released last week, “Three-quarters of voters, including half of Democrats, say they have concerns about President Joe Biden’s mental and physical health.” His contentious press conference likely exacerbated those concerns.
Inevitably, it raised fresh questions concerning whether Biden should run for a second term. There has been speculation about the Democratic National Committee “parachuting in” a replacement candidate at the party convention, but this would be virtually impossible. As I pointed out in the The American Spectator last month, the only elected incumbent ever denied the nomination of his party for reelection was President Franklin Pierce long before the modern primary system reduced party conventions to coronations. The possibility of resorting to the 25th Amendment has also been raised yet again, but constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley explains in The Hill why that still remains an impracticable option.
It is Section 4 [of the amendment] that allows the removal of a president … It requires a vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare that the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” and notify Congress that the vice president intends to take over. If Vice President Kamala Harris could get eight Cabinet officers to go along with a letter to Congress, her status as the “Acting President” would likely be short-lived. Joe Biden (who yesterday declared, “I’m elderly and know what the hell I’m doing”) would only have to declare to Congress that “no inability exists.” Biden would then resume his powers.
Nonetheless, the Democrats and the corporate media are clearly casting about for a way to rid themselves of their turbulent 2024 reelection candidate. On Saturday, veteran Clinton hit man James Carville was asked by CNN’s Michael Smerconish, “Is it too late for Democrats to change horses?” Carville responded with his trademark candor: “Well, in a sense, it’s never too late. If you had a nominee, and the nominee dropped dead in the last week of October, you have some mechanism to have a replacement.” Then, realizing that this wasn’t quite what Smerconish was expecting, he cited the example of Lyndon Johnson’s decision not to run in 1968, failing to note that Johnson faced serious primary challengers and Biden does not. (READ MORE from David Catron: Trump’s Swing State Challenge)
As the Democrats search for a way to jettison Biden, they have reverted to what might be styled “the Ken Starr strategy.” Starr, you will recall, was the independent counsel whose report led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He was daily subjected to withering attacks, usually false, from the Democrats and the White House. It became clear over the weekend that special counsel Robert Hur is going to get the same treatment. The corporate news media has already labeled him as a “Trump appointee,” usually without noting that it was Biden’s own attorney general who chose him for the special counsel position. Significantly, even the editors of the New York Times pointed out that Biden and his supporters must do better:
Mr. Biden’s allies are already going to the usual Washington playbook of dismissing the special counsel’s report as partisan. Regardless of Mr. Hur’s motivation, the details that he presented spoke to worries voters already had. The president has to reassure and build confidence with the public by doing things that he has so far been unwilling to do convincingly. He needs to be out campaigning with voters far more in unrehearsed interactions. He could undertake more town hall meetings in communities and on national television. He should hold regular news conferences to demonstrate his command of and direction for leading the country.
This is good advice but there is no realistic way President Biden can follow it. He can’t get through a 13-minute press conference without shouting angrily at reporters, misidentifying the President of Egypt as the President of Mexico and misrepresenting the special counsel’s report. How can he possibly campaign in venues that require unrehearsed interactions with voters when his memory is so far gone that he discusses recent conversations with long dead heads of state? How can the President reassure and build confidence with the public when he refuses to take the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA) test that his likely opponent in the upcoming presidential election has voluntarily taken on several occasions? (READ MORE: Is This What Biden Meant By ‘Unity’?)
Moreover, it isn’t just the voters who worry about President Biden’s mental acuity. As early as 2021, Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) wrote to Biden expressing doubt that he should have the sole authority to order a nuclear strike. These two congressmen are Democrats, mind you, not “MAGA extremists.” Think about that for a moment. Biden can’t remember that Abdel Fattah El-Sisi isn’t the president of Mexico or that François Mitterrand shuffled off his mortal coil during the last century. Nonetheless, he can reduce any city on the planet to rubble. Talk about sound and fury — President Biden is dangerous.
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