We've seen Joe Biden getting worse right before our eyes. We've been giving you a running account of it and, indeed, how much worse he's gotten since he even began to occupy the Oval Office.
Now, a new report from the Wall Street Journal reveals even more troubling concerns about his performance in meetings over the last few months.
When President Biden met with congressional leaders in the West Wing in January to negotiate a Ukraine funding deal, he spoke so softly at times that some participants struggled to hear him, according to five people familiar with the meeting. He read from notes to make obvious points, paused for extended periods and sometimes closed his eyes for so long that some in the room wondered whether he had tuned out.
In a February one-on-one chat in the Oval Office with House Speaker Mike Johnson, the president said a recent policy change by his administration that jeopardizes some big energy projects was just a study, according to six people told at the time about what Johnson said had happened. Johnson worried the president’s memory had slipped about the details of his own policy.
Last year, when Biden was negotiating with House Republicans to lift the debt ceiling, his demeanor and command of the details seemed to shift from one day to the next, according to then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and two others familiar with the talks. On some days, he had loose and spontaneous exchanges with Republicans, and on others he mumbled and appeared to rely on notes.
“I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I’d go to his house,” McCarthy said in an interview. “He’s not the same person.”
In the January meeting, he moved so slowly around the table that it took him ten minutes to greet everyone. Then he read off of cards about the need to help Ukraine, which was weird since the people there basically agreed on the need. Some also had trouble hearing what he was saying. He also had to turn to staff and lawmakers to help him. One person said, “You couldn’t be there and not feel uncomfortable.” Rep. James Risch (R-ID), who attended, pooh-poohed the claim that Biden messed up in public but was a "dynamo" behind the scenes. "These people who keep talking about what a dynamo he is behind closed doors—they need to get him out from behind closed doors, because I didn’t see it,” he said.
Then, in the February meeting, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spoke with Biden about how he had halted future permits for shipping LNG to many countries, including Europe, while the climate, economic, and national-security impact of those exports was being studied. Johnson said that when he confronted Biden about this helping Vladimir Putin, Biden said this was just a study, not appearing to understand what he had, in fact, done.
Then, in the debt ceiling debate from last year with McCarthy, Biden had to rely on cards and would "ramble," according to McCarthy. He kept repeating things that were already settled. McCarthy said Biden was "shocked" when he had to correct him and said, "We talked about that meetings ago. We are done with that.’”
[Biden] spoke so softly and with such little enunciation that attendees said they struggled to hear what he was saying, people familiar with the meeting said. He told the same story more than once about his experiences with the DuPont company during his time as a Delaware senator, one of the people said.
The White House responded to the report by immediately blaming Republicans for spreading "false" information, but the WSJ noted that the reports came from 45 people, including Republicans and Democrats, whom they spoke to over several months and that some of the Democrats also said he "showed his age in several of the exchanges."
The White House kept close tabs on some of The Wall Street Journal’s interviews with Democratic lawmakers. After the offices of several Democrats shared with the White House either a recording of an interview or details about what was asked, some of those lawmakers spoke to the Journal a second time and once again emphasized Biden’s strengths.
“They just, you know, said that I should give you a call back,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, referring to the White House.
Bates, the White House spokesman, said: “We thought it was important that all perspectives be represented” to correct what he said were “false and politically motivated claims.”
The White House also denied that Biden had misspoken in the February meeting with Johnson and claimed McCarthy said at the time that he was impressed with Biden.
The people involved in the reports should have been more vocal about this, not just talking to the WSJ months ago. But in truth, everything we've been seeing backs up these accounts as we've seen him failing and getting worse — particularly over the past few months.
We've seen the brain breaks and the confusion, his saying weird things, such as thinking a person being held hostage by Hamas was there in the Rose Garden, thinking he was vice president during the pandemic, and confusing world leaders. So it's not really a surprise. It just blows apart the White House claims that somehow he's different behind the scenes when, frankly, it sounds the same or worse.
It also brings up one more reason to get that audio of the Robert Hur interview with Biden, where they claim they couldn't transcribe parts because they were "indiscernible" — is that because, as with what is being described in this report, Biden is so unable to communicate? That's what it sounds like. Special Counsel Robert Hur, of course, also confirmed the "poor memory."
But perhaps more than anything else, it shows what great danger we are in when someone is this impaired in the Oval Office. How many things is he messing up if we are only hearing some of these things now, and what effect may they have on the nation? This is incredibly worrying.
READ MORE:
Biggs Absolutely Levels Garland, Blows Up the Excuses Not to Turn Over Hur Audio
Biden Incoherence Goes Off a Cliff, Said Hostage Still Being Held by Hamas Was at WH
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