Disengaged? Check. I realize the current government funding drama is mostly a function of Congress, and it's hard to blame Democrats -- as the RNC and Vice President-elect JD Vance have tried to do -- when the Republican majority in the Republican-held House failed to pass several versions of a Republican spending bill, including one that had been blessed by the Republican President-elect. That's on them. But it's also true that at least for now, Democrats still control half of Congress and the presidency, and as all the potential shutdown saga plays out, no one is even talking about Joe Biden as if he's still the sitting POTUS. It's been a very odd time:
We are in a very weird period where Democrats still technically control the Senate and WH, but all of the discussion is focused on what Republicans want because no one believes the current POTUS is capable of doing anything substantive and the new Congress is around the corner.…
— AG (@AGHamilton29) December 19, 2024
Senile? Check. The Wall Street Journal, which took enormous criticism from partisans and fellow 'journalists' for covering Biden's slippage and decline before a fateful presidential debate ended the Big Lie, published a follow-up this week. The president's condition has been a cover-up-worthy problem for years, and people on the inside are now (scandalously belatedly) acknowledging it more openly:
To adapt the White House around the needs of a diminished leader, they told visitors to keep meetings focused. Interactions with senior Democratic lawmakers and some cabinet members—including powerful secretaries such as Defense’s Lloyd Austin and Treasury’s Janet Yellen—were infrequent or grew less frequent. Some legislative leaders had a hard time getting the president’s ear at key moments, including ahead of the U.S.’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. Senior advisers were often put into roles that some administration officials and lawmakers thought Biden should occupy...Presidents always have gatekeepers. But in Biden’s case, the walls around him were higher and the controls greater, according to Democratic lawmakers, donors and aides who worked for Biden and other administrations. There were limits over who Biden spoke with, limits on what they said to him and limits around the sources of information he consumed.
Throughout his presidency, a small group of aides stuck close to Biden to assist him, especially when traveling or speaking to the public. “They body him to such a high degree,” a person who witnessed it said, adding that the “hand holding” is unlike anything other recent presidents have had...A sign that the bruising presidential schedule needed to be adjusted for Biden’s advanced age had arisen early on—in just the first few months of his term. Administration officials noticed that the president became tired if meetings went long and would make mistakes...They issued a directive to some powerful lawmakers and allies seeking one-on-one time: The exchanges should be short and focused, according to people who received the message directly from White House aides. Ideally, the meetings would start later in the day, since Biden has never been at his best first thing in the morning, some of the people said. His staff made these adjustments to limit potential missteps by Biden...If the president was having an off day, meetings could be scrapped altogether.
This story was based on comments from 50 sources, some of whom told the Journal that the ornery old president was expliclty shielded from bad news, as a matter of internal policy. He was also "wasn't talking to his own pollsters," whose numbers showing him trailing Biden didn't believe or want to hear. For years, we have had a diminished president who has been incapable of fully engaging with the most important job in the world and who was deliberately insulated from reality by the people around him, who repeatedly lied about all of it. This is genuinely outrageous, and arguably a constitutional crisis. At this point, nobody is really pretending that the President of the United States is really the president anymore, beyond the title and trappings. Not long ago, the New York Times was quoting "experts" about Biden being a "super ager," while gaslighting commentators pretended obvious observations were colored by partisanship:
Can we get a follow-up on this? Which “reflection” turned out correct? https://t.co/lUAig8KPDJ
— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) December 20, 2024
With Biden hardly even feigning being in charge at this stage, his inner circle still control the authorities of the presidency, which they continue to abuse on policy:
Biden admin cancels $4.3 billion in latest round of student loan relief https://t.co/XZUUrg907I
— Axios (@axios) December 20, 2024
Finally, disgusting pardon spree? Check. The Biden blob went back on the president's oft-stated word by issuing a sweeping pardon for his scandal-plagued son, of course, then has proceeded to offer egregious pardons and commutations to a string of criminals, including some of the most corrupt imprisoned public officials in the country. And is just keeps going:
Biden grants clemency to former doctor called ‘the biggest pill-pusher in North Alabama’ https://t.co/0O4HOETJrc
— Erin DeLullo (@EMDeLullo) December 19, 2024
Democrat-aligned "fact checker" Politifact decided that this year's political lie of the year was the claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets. Apparently, 'Biden is sharp as a tack,' and 'the president will not pardon his son' didn't make the cut. Embarrassing.
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