Washington, D.C. Fears that President Joe Biden, at age 81, was no longer able to do his job seemed to have gone away after his March State of the Union address.
He spoke with a lot of force and argued with Republican politicians who were making fun of his message. But one of the Democrats who shook Biden’s hand in the House chamber that night was uncomfortable with how he looked.
An interview with the congressman not long ago said that Biden looked “frail and weak.”
Biden’s performance in last week’s debate with Trump was so bad that it could end his campaign just four months before the election. In order to save his bid for another term, he is asking voters to compare the 90-minute mess with what he says is a record of success in office over the past 3½ years.
But the idea that last week’s debate was an outlier doesn’t fit with what some Democratic lawmakers who have seen him in person and don’t believe he can do his job think.
It wasn’t just one event; the debate showed the same troubling signs that these officials say they’ve seen in Biden’s company throughout his term: forgetfulness, incoherence, and a blank look.
“The country saw at the debate what those of us who have met him in person for the last two and a half years have known all along,” a senator who asked to remain anonymous to talk about Biden’s health said.
There are a lot of well-paid staff around Biden who have worked to keep him from getting embarrassed, which could happen to an older president. Because he doesn’t want to fall, he often gets on Air Force One through a shorter ladder that leads to the belly of the plane. Since Ronald Reagan, no other president has given fewer interviews, where he has to answer questions quickly without a script.
The argument took off the covering that kept people safe. Now that Biden is in a tough spot, he needs to show very quickly that he can handle the responsibilities of being president. This week, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and I talked on the phone, and Coons said that Biden told him, “He’s got to do some things to win back the trust of the American people.”
The two men also talked about how to deal with the problems that the argument caused. Biden admitted that one of his flaws was that he came ready to use facts and figures that don’t mean much when he faces Trump, Coons said.
“Donald Trump is a very different kind of opponent,” he said. “Donald Trump stood there and unleashed a torrent of angry invective that Joe Biden could still hear even though the mics were off.”
Coons, who used to work as an intern for Biden as a senator, said he is still sure of his mental skills. During the call with Biden, the president was “clear, interested, and full of energy,” he said.
“There was never a time when I doubted his mental sharpness,” Coons said.
Others see a figure that isn’t as big. A third Democratic member said that Biden has looked “exceedingly tired” when they were together in the past few months. Biden seemed “far from optimal” in other situations this year. The lawmaker said that the debate showed the “worst” side of Biden, but that it was not an isolated event.
This House member said that since the debate, about 40 Democratic politicians have been texting each other, and not a single one of them thinks Biden should stay in the race.
In response, a Biden campaign spokeswoman named several Congressmembers who have backed up Biden’s sharpness.
“I will tell you that in my encounters with Joe Biden as president, I have not experienced what I saw last week,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who used to work for Biden when he was in the Senate.
“He knows my name as soon as I see him,” Connolly said. “He’ll name the friends and coworkers we had together during that time and genuinely want to know how they’re doing.”
“I have seen my former boss get older, for sure, but I have not seen him lose his mind,” Connolly said.
Each person ages in their own way, but being president tends to speed up the aging process. He appeared at the trial of a former White House official in 1990, a year after he had left office. He was 79 years old at the time, which is two years younger than Biden is now.
Reagan couldn’t remember the name of the person who used to be his head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A report from the Los Angeles Times says that he said “I don’t remember” or a phrase like it at least 124 times during his statement.
Aides say that Biden has a lot of times when he shows amazing control over his abilities.
Last month, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Biden gave a big speech in France. A top White House official said that while he was writing the speech, Biden made sure that it did justice to the Army Rangers who climbed the cliffs under fire from German machine guns.
As the troops climbed rope ladders at Omaha Beach, an early draft said they were thinking about how to protect democracy.
The source said that Biden didn’t think that made sense. While he was in his hotel in Paris reading the draft, Biden asked an aide if combat soldiers would really be talking about the future of democracy while they were trying to avoid enemy fire.
The assistant said, “No, it’s not.”
Biden demanded that the reference be thrown out and something more real be used instead.
Instead, in his speech at Pointe du Hoc, he talked about a fight between two troops. One said, “I’m not sure I can make it,” and the other soldier yelled back, “You’ve got to hold on!”
Biden may not be able to hold on. He is putting a lot of faith in an interview with ABC News on Friday, which he sees as a chance to clear up the many questions that have been raised since the debate.
Coons said, “One of his main jobs is to show people that this was a moment.” “There were many reasons why tonight’s debate was bad, not just one secret problem.” Plus, we talked about what he needs to do to get people to trust that.
But the interview comes eight days after Biden’s showing on stage with Trump, which is enough time for people to think he did badly.
He might not be able to save his campaign even if the interview goes well.
“This man and his family are loved very much.” “Many of us are confused about why he and the people around him, who presumably love him, are letting him throw away his historical legacy,” the third Democratic lawmaker said.
“If he loses to Trump in that debate, that will be written on his tombstone instead of what he did well.” “It’s an event that will forever change history,” this politician said.
