Bumbling, tumbling Biden needs to be saved from himself
A week ago, President Biden ended a speech about gun control with the words: “God save the Queen, man.”
I happened to be watching it live on TV at the time, and replayed the comment to make sure I’d heard him right.
I had.
Biden was urging God to save a woman who died nine months ago, Queen Elizabeth II.
He should know this because he flew across the Atlantic to attend my late, great monarch’s funeral and made a series of statements of condolence to her family and my country.
But then, the president’s record in this area ain’t great.
In the same month the Queen died, last September, he asked during another speech, “Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie?” as he searched the room for Jackie Walorski, an Indiana congresswoman who had been killed in a car accident the month before.
Again, Biden should have known this because he’d issued a heartfelt statement of condolence to her family at the time, saying how shocked and saddened he was by her death.
Of course, the president’s constant verbal gaffes get way more serious when he says things that contradict current US government policy.
He called for regime change in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, only for the White House to deny he meant that when he said of Vladimir Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
Then he said the US would defend Taiwan militarily if China attacked it, apparently ending decades of ambiguous non-commitment on that kind of intervention and sparking fury from the Chinese.
Again, the White House had to deny he meant what we all heard him say.
If it was just the occasional verbal “senior moment” gaffe to worry about with Biden, that would be one thing.
But his physical ones are just as concerning and are escalating in volume.
Last month, he fell flat on his face at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony, as Secret Service agents rushed to pick him up.
Earlier this year, he stumbled twice in a few weeks as he walked up the steps of Air Force One.
Last year, he tumbled off his bike crossing a road.
He also regularly forgets where he is when he walks off stages, and veers off the wrong way in scenes more appropriate for a Charlie Chaplin movie.
The combined effect of all this is now crystal clear: Most Americans don’t think their president is either mentally or physically fit for office.
A new NBC poll published over the weekend reveals that a staggering 68% of voters say they have “major or moderate concerns” about the 80-year-old president, of whom 55% say they have “major” concerns. That’s significantly up (by 17 points) on when the question was last asked just before the 2020 election, and concern among Democrats has doubled since then.
Just 32% of all voters say they have “minor or no real” concerns, down from 48%.
They also have doubts about former President Donald Trump’s mental and physical health, with 55% saying they have “major or moderate” concerns and 44% saying they have “minor or no” concerns.
But the results for the incumbent president are far more troubling and reflect a growing unease even among his own party about his decision to run again in 2024.
Biden, at 80, is already the oldest president in US history.
If re-elected in 2024, he would be 82 years old on Inauguration Day in 2025 and 86 when leaving office.
Not to be unkind, but it’s hard to imagine what state he might be in by then.
And the prospect of Biden going through another grueling election campaign is increasingly disconcerting.
Not least because unlike the COVID-ravaged 2020 election, where he was able to mostly hide away in his Delaware basement, Biden will have no such excuse this time around.
He’ll have to be constantly out and about, traveling all over the country, making speeches, meeting the public and talking to the media.
As one strategist told The Hill: “The more he’s out there, the more likely he is to make a gaffe.”
Sadly, we all know that’s true.
Last July, Biden claimed he had cancer, only for White House physician Kevin O’Connor to rush out a statement saying he doesn’t and insisting, “President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous, 78-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.”
Does he, though?
Biden is showing more and more signs of cognitive and physical deterioration that aren’t just to do with his age.
I know 90-year-olds who are twice as lucid and mobile as he is.
No, the cold, hard, brutal reality is that Biden’s losing it, and he’s losing it while also trying to be president of the United States and de facto leader of the free world — one of the most relentlessly difficult, energy-sapping, pressurized jobs imaginable.
I couldn’t put it better than former White House physician Ronny Jackson, who worked for both Presidents Barack Obama and Trump and is now a Republican politician.
He told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity: “This man (Biden) is not fit mentally or physically to be our president, and it’s a bad situation for us. Part of the job of the president of the United States is to inspire confidence and project power, and he’s not doing that. He can’t do that, he’s too old to do that, and I think it’s a shame. I think his physical decline is now starting to highlight the cognitive decline that we’ve been watching for so long now … and it’s becoming a national security issue for us. It’s embarrassing for him, and it’s embarrassing for our country.”
It is.
Imagine a scenario where Joe Biden wins re-election in 2024 and asks himself at his own inauguration: “Joe, where are you? Are you here?”
Or, worse: “God save the King, man!”
It could happen.
We all know it could happen.
But the Democrats shouldn’t allow it to happen.
For his sake, their sake, and America’s sake.
