Ever since the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Joe Biden’s illegal handling of classified materials and documents (he “stored” them in open boxes and grocery bags in his home garage, where Hunter Biden crashed during the pandemic), there has been a media blitz to combat its characterization of the president as “a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
Notes in the report also revealed that Biden had trouble remembering key dates from his personal and professional biography, like when he served as vice president or the year that his son Beau died of brain cancer. Yet from NBC News, to the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC and Politico, come a series of attacks on the special counsel in an attempt to push an idea of Joe Biden that simply does not exist in the public eye. Jill Biden has sat for an interview, transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg gave comments to Politico and recently impeached DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also spoke of Biden’s “focus” and “sharpness.” Biden campaign co-chair Chris Coons relayed almost the exact same message, word for word, on Meet the Press.
Everyone in the president’s orbit is being marched out to reassure the public of his impeccable cognitive abilities — everyone except the president himself, who refuses to sit for even a CBS softball Super Bowl interview. He rushed out the night the report was released only to prove Hur’s characterization of him, forgetting the name of the parish where he received Beau Biden’s rosary, and mixing up the presidents of Mexico and Egypt. When Biden appeared Tuesday, for the first time since that disastrous evening presser, he concluded his statement on Ukraine funding by saying, “God Bless America and may God protect our speaker,” confusing, I assume, House Speaker Mike Johnson with “troops,” which has always been Biden’s customary sign off.
The administration, with journalists in tow, is playing the Looney Tunes dancing frog act — that to them and only them, behind closed doors, away from cameras and the voting public, Biden is not the president we see regularly confuse world leaders, forget where to walk off a stage, lose concentration mid-sentence and refuse to hold live interviews or unscripted press conferences. They are telling 86 percent of the country (according to a recent ABC News poll on Biden’s fitness for a second term) not to believe their eyes and ears.
When Biden’s White House attorneys were asked if they would demand a transcript release to refute the special counsel’s generalizations, they were non-committal. The White House has not pledged to support the release of audio recordings of the sessions, which could go a long way in refuting the final report’s assessment of Biden. At every step, this administration and a lockstep media pushing its message has refused any access to the president himself, so Biden can make the case for his own mental and cognitive fitness.
If Joe Biden cannot make his own case to the American people that he will serve a second term to its fulfillment and not resign halfway due to his advanced age and health, thrusting an unpopular President Kamala Harris onto the country, then we should not allow anyone in our media or this White House to make the case for him.
