As State of the Union Speech Looms, Brit Hume Declares: Biden 'Is Palpably Senile...the Country Sees It'

In mid-February, an ABC News/Ipsos poll found that nearly nine out of 10 Americans think Joe Biden is too old to serve a second term as president. That's not exactly breaking news. What is newsworthy is veteran political analyst Brit Hume declaring on Tuesday night that Biden is "palpably senile."

Hume warns 'the country sees' that Biden is 'palpably senile' as State of the Union approaches https://t.co/P790XDWlhA
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 6, 2024

The newsworthiness was less about what was said and more about who said it.

Hume has been a respected journalist for decades. After spending 23 years at ABC News, he left the network in 1996 to join Fox News. After retiring as the anchor of "Special Report" in 2008, he became a senior political analyst and a regular panelist on "Fox News Sunday."

Here's the point: Brit Hume has never been given to partisan political rhetoric, whataboutism, or hypocrisy; he calls 'em like he sees 'em — on both sides of the political aisle. And what Hume now sees in Joe Biden is a cognitively declining man incapable of performing the duties of the president of the United States.

I was saying back when it was not at all fashionable to say it, that he is senile. And now I think he is palpably senile and the country sees it.

Yes, the country sees it — including a majority of the Democrat Party, even as many Democrats continue to insist (lie) that they don't.

So the party's recent strategy — with a willing and able assist from the liberal lapdog media — has now shifted to trying to counter the issue of Biden's age by saying, "Oh, yeah? Well, Trump is old, too!" On Monday, Hillary Clinton took it a step further, saying of Biden vs. Trump (emphasis, mine):

Somebody the other day said to me… 'Well, but, you know, Joe Biden's old.' I said, 'You know what, Joe Biden is old. Let's go ahead and accept the reality. Joe Biden is old.'
So we have a contest between one candidate who's old, but who's done an effective job and doesn't threaten our democracy. And we have another candidate who is old, barely makes sense when he talks, is dangerous, and threatens our democracy.

Those scare tactics have not worked — and they are not going to work.

As Hume correctly pointed out, Biden's senility isn't the only issue that's "softening" his support within the Democrat Party — most recently, it's also been Israel's ongoing war in Gaza against Hamas.

And within his own party, his support for Israel is hurting him with a wing of the party which is considerably larger than it is in the Republican Party, for example, that is very sympathetic toward the Arab side in this conflict and long has been and especially toward those who are suffering in Gaza.

Earlier on Tuesday, while talking about Trump being "on a glide path to the nomination," Hume raised Biden's most damning issue — his intentionally created illegal alien invasion, the impact of which has now spread across the country.

It took a while for it to develop but it is rampant now throughout the country. People who live in far places removed from the border — They've gotten a taste of what it's like when these immigrants arrive in large numbers and tax their social services programs and cause crime and all the rest of it. And the president is vulnerable on this issue because he sorta didn't do anything — and people can see that. They can say "The border's secure," and they can say '"We've done everything that we can do," but I don't think people believe that.

That was a good example of why Hume has been respected for decades. He knows it worse than Biden simply "not doing anything" — the travesty is that Biden did do something, which he continues to do: intentionally import as many illegal aliens into this country as he can get away with, and kinder-than-necessary Hume knows full well that people don't believe Biden's lies.

WATCH: Fox News’ @brithume on Super Tuesday: “Trump is on a glide path to the nomination” pic.twitter.com/gehErIVpJa
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) March 5, 2024

The Bottom Line

While I think it reasonably safe to stick a fork in the chances of Joe Biden beating Donald Trump in November, I don't think putting all the eggs in the Biden nomination basket is wise.

The smartest thing Team Trump can do between now and November would be to abandon the "retribution" rhetoric and the "us vs. them" mentality and try to broaden Trump's base — not pit it against everyone not currently part of it.

And one final note: We get that it's not Biden's age, as highlighted by the poll I referenced at the top. We also get that some polls use "age" as a code word for "cognitive decline."

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