The American people have a right to know the mental and physical suitability of all presidential candidates
7 June 2024 •
Washington DC partisans went to their predictable corners after the Wall Street Journal published a 3,000 word article investigating the mental fitness of sitting President Joe Biden. Conservatives, understandably, argued that it confirmed their prejudices around the president’s occasionally strange behavior.
Liberal allies disagreed. Within hours, the White House sent out nine responses blasting the piece as a “complete and utter editorial fail.” MSNBC Biden booster Joe Scarborough dismissed the “slipping” thesis as “a Trump hit job.”
The same thing happened just two months ago, after Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report “uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified material…when he was a private citizen.” But Hur declined to recommend prosecution, reasoning that “at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Biden was so sensitive to the Hur criticism that he invoked executive privilege to block release of the audio recordings of Hur’s interview with him, insisting that to protect his privacy a transcript must suffice.
But the White House has now been forced to concede in a court filing seeking to block release of the audio that the Hur transcript was doctored. Repeated words and filler words such as “um” were often omitted. Even with that, the transcript shows Biden saying, for example, “and, and” more than 20 times.
While partisans argue, aren’t the American people voting this November owed more substantive information? One thing we know for sure: there’s a long history of presidential aides lying and obfuscating about their bosses’ health, in no small part because their power rests on him staying in office. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, a leader’s inner circle believes he is so precious that he must be protected by a bodyguard of lies.
Woodrow Wilson, after his stroke in 1919, had his wife practically running the government behind the scenes for a year and a half. On any given day in office, John F. Kennedy was using up to 12 painkillers and medications that brought on a myriad of side effects. His Addison’s Disease was carefully hidden from the public and some doctors believe he wouldn’t have survived a second term if he hadn’t been assassinated.
But the most egregious coverup involved Franklin D. Roosevelt hiding the fact he was dying from the public in the election year of 1944. The year began in January with naval doctor Ross MacIntire, the president’s personal physician for 12 years, telling reporters that FDR’s health was the best it had been since he started examining him. Several days later, Dr. MacIntire was promoted to rear admiral.
In March, MacIntire diagnosed FDR with acute congestive heart failure, and In July told him he probably wouldn’t finish a fourth term if he won it. A day later, Roosevelt announced he would run for re-election. In September, MacIntire assured the press that FDR had “absolutely no organic difficulties at all.”
With such assurances and a few carefully staged appearances, Roosevelt won. In January 1945 a dying, drugged-up FDR left for a fateful summit with Stalin and Churchill in Yalta. In a letter, Roosevelt described his negotiating strategy to his friend William Bullitt: “I think that if I give (Stalin) everything I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return… he will not try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.” We know how that turned out – Stalin reneged on all his commitments and 120 million Eastern Europeans were condemned to live under Communism for over 40 years.
World War Two historian Lynne Olson, writing in the New York Times, concludes that “Roosevelt’s cover-up of his failing health in the 1944 campaign was an egregious deception of American voters and helped contribute to a climate of cynicism about politicians.”
The way to avoid deepening that cynicism is to learn from history and not take spoon-fed assurances from the Biden White House at face value. In February, the president completed his annual physical exam and Kevin O’Connor, his personal physician, issued a one-page summary declaring him physically fit for duty.
But, tellingly, he declined to answer any questions from reporters. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre admitted that no cognitive exam had been given: “He passes a cognitive test every day,” she claimed.
Given the mounting evidence that Biden isn’t the man he used to be, that kind of brushoff is insulting. The president should have been given a cognitive test, and in any event his physical is now nearly four months old.
Instead of a partisan tit-for-tat debate over whether Joe Biden is the same as he was four years ago, the least the
American people deserve is that President Biden take a serous cognitive test supervised by independent medical authorities.
A failure to take the mounting evidence seriously risks not only a collapse of trust in the White House that will affect future presidents but the specter of real crises during a second Biden term.
Why is this important for Ukrainians?
We know that the presumptive Republican candidate intends to foist a “land for peace” deal on Ukraine, because he has said so.
We know that Biden ruled out the NFZ and US troops on the ground back in May 2022.
In a major policy shift, we now know that he intends to keep Ukraine out of Nato indefinitely.
The concerning part of the above article is :
“In January 1945 a dying, drugged-up FDR left for a fateful summit with Stalin and Churchill in Yalta. In a letter, Roosevelt described his negotiating strategy to his friend William Bullitt: “I think that if I give (Stalin) everything I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return… he will not try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.” We know how that turned out – Stalin reneged on all his commitments and 120 million Eastern Europeans were condemned to live under Communism for over 40 years.”
We have not one but two presidents who are potentially willing to cave into the most vile nazi dictator of all time.
We are in exceptionally precarious time in this terrible war :
putler is making slow but steady gains on the ground and preparing the way for a human catastrophe in the winter with potentially huge power outages.
Biden is showing signs of throttling back: so far no plans for Ukraine support in 2025 are forthcoming.
Macron promised troops on the ground if putler was to break on through.
Well putler has broken through, but still no signs of French troops. Instead, we have the promise of French fourth generation jets and training. Welcome though that is, how long before they are in situ?
Probably 12-18 months.
As long as Biden can say, “Person, woman, man, camera, TV”, we are good.
That’s from a dementia test, and there’s a good reason that trumpkov was asked to take one. I think he’s overdue for a repeat – his dementia is becoming more and more obvious.
Let’s face it, both candidates aren’t fit for office anymore. But both parties are highly unlikely to deny them nomination, so here the voters are, with yet another lousy “lesser evil” choice. It’s a sure move to drive dissatisfaction with democracy up. 🙄
“…with yet another lousy “lesser evil” choice.”
You don’t even know how many Americans feel this way, Mr. Gray. Me too.
Both parties failed the American people. I’m sure that we have much better to offer out of a population of around 350,000,000.
Yeah, Mr. Facts, comment threads at the New York Times are full of people feeling the same way. Reruns of past elections, that’s so not what democracy should be about. Many Americans are concerned that their country has lost its course and its drive. It will be difficult to “get out the vote” under these circumstances. ☹
I wish I was 4 years older…
The Wall Street Journal’s story about Biden’s mental acuity suffers from glaring problems
Analysis by Oliver Darcy, CNN
The Wall Street Journal owes its readers — and the public — better.
The business broadsheet published and hyped a story Wednesday declaring that “behind closed doors,” President Joe Biden has shown “signs of slipping.” The story questioned Biden’s mental acuity, playing into a GOP-propelled narrative that the 81-year-old president lacks the fitness to hold the nation’s highest office.
But an examination of the report reveals a glaring problem: Most of the sources reporters Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes relied on were Republicans. In fact, buried in the story, the reporters themselves acknowledged that they had drawn their sweeping conclusion based on GOP sources who, obviously, have an incentive to make comments that will damage Biden’s candidacy.
“Most of those who said Biden performed poorly were Republicans, but some Democrats said that he showed his age in several of the exchanges,” Linskey and Hughes conceded. The duo also noted that they had spoken to sources in the administration “who found no fault” with the way Biden conducted himself in meetings for which they were present.
Republicans accusing their political foe of lacking the mental fitness to hold office is nothing surprising. Such accusations are made every night on Fox News. And Donald Trump, who at 77 years old has also shown plenty of signs of waning mental faculties, including repeatedly falling asleep at his own high-stakes hush money trial, has made the accusation a centerpiece of his campaign. In other words, these accusations from the right aren’t exactly news.
“It’s a little surprising that The Wall Street Journal thought it was breaking news when congressional Republicans told them the same false claims they’ve spouted on Fox News for years,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, “but it’s also telling that the only individuals willing to smear the President in this story are political opponents afraid to use their names — plus one proven liar.”
Even more inexplicable is why The Journal would quote former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the piece as a serious person speaking in good faith. McCarthy is, in fact, a MAGA Republican who has for years lied on behalf of Trump. I’m sure reporters at The Journal would acknowledge McCarthy’s extreme record of dishonesty in private. So why present him to readers as an honest arbiter of reality?
The New York Times’ Katie Rogers and Annie Karni even reported last year that McCarthy had praised Biden’s mental faculties when speaking amongst confidantes — a starkly different tune than the one he is now singing in public. “Privately, Mr. McCarthy has told allies that he has found Mr. Biden to be mentally sharp in meetings,” Rogers and Karni reported in March 2023. Rogers re-upped that reporting on Wednesday in the wake of The Journal’s story.
Bizarrely, while quoting McCarthy, The Journal apparently ignored on-the-record statements provided by high-ranking Democrats. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disclosed that she spoke to the newspaper, but she was notably not quoted in the piece. Other Democrats went public on Wednesday with similar experiences. Instead, one of the only on-the-record quotes in the entire story was delivered by the former Republican leader who would lie about the color of the sky if it pleased Trump.
“The Journal ignored testimony by Democrats, focused on attacks by Republicans and printed a hit piece,” Pelosi protested on X.
Hughes responded to the criticism Wednesday, telling “CNN News Central” that her job “is to be the agent of the reader” and that she is not going to “publish the quote provided to me or us by every single Democrat.”
A spokesperson for The Journal told me that the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, which is under the stewardship of newish editor Emma Tucker, “stands by its reporting.” If Tucker is comfortable with such shoddy journalism, it is worrisome.
It is difficult to imagine that the newspaper, or any outlet, would run a similar story declaring that Trump is “slipping” behind the scenes based on the word of top Democratic figures — despite the fact that the Democratic leadership has demonstrated a much stronger relationship with the truth in recent years than their Republican counterparts.
More broadly speaking, The Journal’s piece pointed to a continued problem roiling the news media as it covers the 2024 election. Trump is permitted to fall asleep in court and make nonsensical public statements on a routine basis without any serious questions raised about his mental acuity. Meanwhile, Biden is judged on an entirely different standard.
Where are the stories about Trump’s former inner circle raising questions about his mental fitness? Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as his communications director, has publicly stated that Trump is “not as sharp” as he once was. Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, has also repeatedly raised issues about the Republican candidate’s mental fitness, describing him as “declining” and “diminished” and “not the same person he was in 2016.”
“Hope the Wall Street Journal feels free to reach out to any one of us who worked in the Trump Admin. Happy to discuss Trump’s mental acuity & fitness for office,” Olivia Troye, a former Trump administration official, sarcastically wrote on X. “We can start with the closed doors discussions on milkshakes during intel briefings, windmills causing cancer, what bleach does & doesn’t do & go from there.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wall-street-journal-story-biden-112214265.html
“The business broadsheet published and hyped a story Wednesday declaring that “behind closed doors,” President Joe Biden has shown “signs of slipping.”
Sorry to burst your bubble, Larry, but this is a fact. You don’t have to be a shrink to see this.
I think both can be true.
Republicans can be lying about his mental state, but at the same time you can argue he is way too old to be POTUS.
I personally think Biden has never been very strong vocally and this probably didn’t improve with age.
^B3rt
From some things that I’ve seen of Biden, it’s a fact that he is slipping. There is no doubt about it whatsoever.
On the same note, this goes for Trump, too, whom I consider to be mildly insane.
True. See the puke-inducing clip of him blathering on about “the great Hannibal Lecter” for proof.
Look at the scrotes he admires : putler, Orban, Carlson, Moscow Marge and now Lecter.
Yeah. Those clowns you named remind of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I replied before; don’t know if it got lost or was deleted by someone.
I know Biden’s old; saying so isn’t “bursting my bubble”. But Biden’s brain is showing normal signs of aging, while trumpkov’s brain is dementing. (See https://www.salon.com/2024/02/23/dr-john-gartner-on-a-tale-of-two-brains-bidens-brain-is-aging-brain-is-dementing/ )
The article says “filler words such as “um” were often omitted” – but that’s standard practice in a “clean transcript”. And it says “the transcript shows Biden saying, for example, “and, and” more than 20 times” – but it’s well known that Joe Biden has had a lifelong stuttering problem. So that’s not an indication of a cognitive decline.
There are numerous other indicators that Biden is simply too old for this job, Larry. And it’s not only his age that is a problem, but also his politics. Simply put, he is the wrong guy to have in the Oval Office during these trying times. This plus his age is not a good combo.
We were once talking where i was located when in the military. You were unable to guess correctly. I was stationed in Eschborn. 😎
I think you told me already, Mike. That’s near Frankfurt, if I remember correctly.