President Joe Biden spoke in Normandy on the eightieth anniversary of D-Day Thursday — and only slightly made a fool of himself. As he entered the event, it looked as if he entirely missed where he was supposed to sit, but played it off with a nice salute to a veteran. In the middle of a rousing speech, he talked about how many Russians died in Ukraine… for mysterious reasons. He did a bit of a squat in an invisible chair as the speaker Lloyd J. Austin III was introduced. The debacle ended with Dr. Jill Biden leading Joe away as the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, nimbly ran to greet D-Day veterans. And we can’t forget Biden’s subtle double fist pump after the jets flew over the ceremony.
You may be getting tired of hearing about the president’s age, but there seems to be a consistent flow of incidents to write about. The Wall Street Journal ran a report on Tuesday titled “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping.” The article was based on interviews with more than forty-five Democrats and Republicans over several months. What the Hill called a “blistering” piece from the WSJ was only a modest acknowledgment of Biden’s senility. The report addressed how certain politicians — specifically during a meeting to negotiate the Ukraine funding deal — were concerned by how frequently Biden deferred to other lawmakers, zoned out and forgot important information. “You couldn’t be there and not feel uncomfortable,” said one person who attended the meeting.
The article implied that Donald Trump was just as forgetful as Biden. Trump has made a fool of himself many times — but most people can tell the difference between senility and inanity, and those two things should be dealt with seperately. The authors of the WSJ article, Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes, cited the fact that Trump “closed his eyes for extended periods” during his criminal trial in New York as proof of mental instability, which appears a bit of a stretch.
The White House top aides say Biden remains a sharp and vigorous leader. “The president’s doctors have found him fit to serve, and that his recent annual physical showed no need for a cognitive test” the WSJ reports.
There were some well-delivered platitudes in Biden’s D-Day speech. “They knew beyond any doubt there are things that are worth fighting and dying for. Freedom is worth it. Democracy is worth it” was one of them. But the speech was somewhat overshadowed by the president’s focus on Ukraine.
“Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination. Ukrainians are fighting with extraordinary courage, suffering great losses but never backing down. They’ve been inflicted on the Russian aggressions — they’ve suffered tremendous losses in Russia. The numbers are staggering. Three hundred and fifty thousand Russian troops dead or wounded.” Biden also addresses the toll the war has had on Russian troops in his interview with TIME magazine. With two mentions, it’s hard to think of it as an accident, but it seems a strange time to mourn over the loss of Russian troops when in his speech he rejoiced that “the forces of liberty are stronger than the forces of conquest.”
Some reported having a Biden campaign ad from TIME pop up after googling “Biden Age” just after his performance in Normandy. The google search “Biden Age” is also sure to bring up Stephen Colbert’s comedy piece attacking the WSJ article, and a Pew Research Center study on how Biden stacks up in age against other world leaders. Spoiler: he is ten years younger than the oldest world leader, Paul Biya, age ninety-one.
It’s hard to predict what the next Biden-is-too-old-to-be-president debacle will be, but previous experience tells us there will certainly be one. Can he last another four years?
