President Joe Biden has a little more than a month in office, and then President-elect Donald Trump once more takes over. While many have known that the president wasn't all there, it took considerably more time for his fellow Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media to get on board. And, once they did, they were quick to force him out of the race, ultimately doing so on July 21, installing Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee not long afterwards. As Biden continues to have bizarre moments, and six weeks after their loss, Democrats and their allies have made some noteworthy revelations, though again, ones which the rest of us have already been aware of for some time.
Here's what the "Driving the Day" section of POLITICO Playbook mentioned for Wednesday morning:
TO STATE THE OBVIOUS — From Peter Baker and Zolan Kanno-Youngs’ NYT assessment of President JOE BIDEN’s final chapter: “Time is catching up with Mr. Biden. He looks a little older and a little slower with each passing day. Aides say he remains plenty sharp in the Situation Room, calling world leaders to broker a cease-fire in Lebanon or deal with the chaos of Syria’s rebellion. But it is hard to imagine that he seriously thought he could do the world’s most stressful job for another four years.”
Of course this would be "to state the obvious," though it's something the American people already knew about, as Bonchie at our sister site of RedState emphasized, also reminding how we were gaslit by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Democratic allies in the media about supposed "cheap fakes." In reality, Biden was declining in real time. Reporting from The New York Times, aptly titled, "A Weary Biden Heads for the Exit," notes how "Time is catching up with Mr. Biden. He looks a little older and a little slower with each passing day."
We're also still treated to more gaslighting from Biden's aides, and it looks like they'll stick by that to the bitter end, as they claim "he remains plenty sharp in the Situation Room..."
The piece begins by writing about Biden's trip to Angola earlier this month, where he memorably fell asleep, gave an insulting non-answer about pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, and announced $1 billion in foreign aide to Africa, despite how Americans are still suffering due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the federal government's atrocious response.
The lengthy piece is dripping with glowing coverage for Biden, while also denigrating Trump, and yet it still highlights the outgoing's president's failings. It can't not:
Even when pushing for his priorities, Mr. Biden has found it hard to break through. During his visit to the Amazon rainforest last month, his fragility appeared painfully clear to those traveling with him.
After speaking for seven minutes on a day of draining humidity, a blue shirt hanging loosely over his frame, he turned to slowly shuffle away down a dirt path as several people in the audience not used to seeing him up close said they held their breath, worried that he would trip. (Aides said his gait was no more unsteady than usual.)
During an arrival ceremony on his trip to Angola this month, on the day after a long, tiring transoceanic flight that would have taxed any octogenarian, President João Lourenço suddenly clutched Mr. Biden’s arm to help guide him up a step.
When Mr. Biden visited the National Museum of Slavery that afternoon, he did not actually enter the main building to view the exhibitions; instead, artifacts were brought outside to show him, which two people familiar with the planning attributed to fear that the steep stairs would be too much of a challenge. (The White House denied that the stairs were a concern and said he was not brought inside for scheduling and logistical reasons.)
...
Several of those who traveled with Mr. Biden on those two trips took note that he maintained a light schedule at times and sometimes mumbled, making him hard to understand. With the end of his career in sight, he seemed ruminative. At one point, during a private meeting, he drifted into a reminiscence about the famous 1960 debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.
...
While some close to Mr. Biden said he had made peace with the coming end of his presidency, others said he had been moody. He is currently angry at Democratic members of Congress who have publicly denounced his decision to pardon Hunter Biden despite promises not to, according to one person who has spent time with him recently.
There's also a section towards the end of the piece that's worth responding to.
Notice how they talk about "this stage of Mr. Biden's presidency" about something that has been a reality for years:
At this stage of Mr. Biden’s presidency, though, his public messaging is targeted and restrained. Once Washington’s most loquacious chatterbox, Mr. Biden these days barely engages with the reporters who follow him everywhere. He has held no news conferences and conducted no interviews with the traditional news media since the election, though he has done some podcasts. His only reply to shouted questions from journalists during his entire Africa trip added up to 14 words. In South America, it was just a single word.
As a result, Mr. Biden has not once publicly addressed his much-criticized decision to pardon his son since the written statement he released, nor has he discussed his consideration of blanket pardons for adversaries of Mr. Trump to protect them from his promised campaign of “retribution” once he takes office.
It's not just that Biden hasn't held press conferences and interviews since that election that was just over six weeks ago; this was a common refrain from the very start of his presidency. It was another matter that Jean-Pierre continued to gaslight the American people on, as she has even laughably claimed that this was a "transparent" administration, as did her predecessor, Jen Psaki.
The co-hosts of "Pod Save America" are a noteworthy bunch, who were formerly with President Barack Obama and who were among those most vocal calling for Biden to drop out of the race. Last month, just before Thanksgiving, they did an episode with Harris' campaign staff to go over the vice president's loss, and it would appear that they did not learn their lesson.
During Tuesday's episode of "CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip," a clip was played of recent points made by co-hosts Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett.
"Joe Biden seems to be disappearing from the public stage as his term comes to an end," Favreau acknowledged.
"I guess what I'm more concerned about is less like am I seeing Joe Biden enough. Maybe he's right that people don't want to hear from him. It's more like, do I feel confident right now that Joe Biden behind the scenes is thinking of every single way he can try to future-proof the White House," Lovett meanwhile said.
When it came time for panel discussion about such a clip, Scott Jennings noted, with laughter in his voice, that "these guys, by the way, coming to this conclusion here in December, as Joe Biden is going out the door, when the rest of America came to this conclusion months and months and months and months ago is the funniest thing I've heard today. I mean, honestly."
Started with a @cnn discussion of Democrats lacking authentic messengers, ended on an amusing revelation by the Pod Save bros that Joe Biden isn’t actually in command (actual LOL on that one). pic.twitter.com/N0EG8KtP0O
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) December 18, 2024
Those aides mentioned in The New York Times piece aren't the only ones worth calling out, though. Harris was herself key in the cover-up of Biden's faculties, or lack thereof. A Fox News report from Tuesday shows that so is the rest of his Cabinet, with glowing remarks coming from certain officials, and varying points. There's comments from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Sabrina Singh, who is he deputy Pentagon press secretary, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Perhaps the most noteworthy is from Becerra, with claims that "Our economy is healthy" and "Is [Biden] fit? He's proving it." Spokespeople for those officials confirm that they stand by their remarks.
Back in July, not long after Biden was forced out, YouGov/Times of London released a poll of registered voters that we covered at the time. While the poll did not look to whether or not Cabinet officials were held by voters to be complicit in such a cover-up, White House staff were included. Seventy-seven percent of voters see them as being "a great deal" involved, while 14 percent see them as "somewhat" involved, and 4 percent said they were "a little" involved.
