If there is an elephant in the room for Democrats, it is the mental decline of an ailing U.S. president whose mental and physical struggles at age 81 have been hard to ignore by anyone paying attention. For many Democrats that reality quickly shifted last week, from punch lines on Fox News to a lively argument on the “Meet the Press” show, after Special Counsel Robert Hur released his report on Biden’s illegal handling of classified documents.
The report did not recommend charging Biden with a crime, which itself appeared to be a slap in the face to Donald Trump, but the report did hit Biden again and again for his poor memory and his struggle to seemingly remember dates and facts. The report says President Biden has a “poor” and “hazy” and “faulty memory,” and concluded the current president of the United States is “a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
At a press conference last week, which appeared to be a hasty attempt to push back on the report, an unhappy Biden was hit with blistering questions from White House reporters about his memory and his ability to serve as president.
“I’m well meaning and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the Hell I’m doing,” Biden replied. “I’ve been president and I’ve put this country back together, and I don’t need [Hur’s] recommendation.”
That angry answer contained quite a lot, including Biden seeming to challenge Hur’s decision not to charge him with a federal crime because of his age and memory.
V.P. Harris says she is 'ready to serve'
Reacting to Biden’s political bombshells, Bill D'Agostino of the Media Research Center says he is aware some believe the arrogant U.S. president is being sabotaged by his own White House.
“I'm not really convinced by this narrative that there is like a bunch of aides in the White House trying to sabotage Biden,” D’Agostino observes, “but I will say that if you were trying to sabotage Biden, that news conference would be a great way to do it.”
Immediately after the press conference, talk of replacing Biden exploded in the news and on social media.
If there is an overt attempt to push out Biden, that would mean Vice President Kamala Harris would assume the role of U.S. president.
Over at The Hill, the online news website, a Monday story helpfully pointed out Vice President Kamala Harris has publicly said she’s “ready to serve” as president in light of questions about Biden’s age and his ability to serve as president.
Harris made that comment in a Wall Street Journal story that published Monday, four days after the Biden press conference.
If Biden steps down soon, Harris would assume the role of president six months before the Democratic Party Convention, which begins August 19 in Chicago.
Asked his prediction about Biden seeking a second term, D’Agostino predicts Biden will remain in the White House through Election Day in November.
“I think that [Biden] is too much of a dream for the people who want him in power,” the media analyst concludes. “He is a blank slate, right, onto which you can write pretty much any policy prescription.”
CNN surprised at Biden’s ‘contradictions’
In another exchange with a reporter last week, Biden blamed his staff for gathering the documents and illegally putting them in his home’s garage.
Over on CNN, legal analyst Eli Honig did not hide his frustration over a related statement from Biden in which the president lied about what the Special Counsel concluded. Biden said he did not share classified information with a ghost writer, which was not true, and Biden said he did not act “intentionally” even though the report states that he did.
“Two major things he just outright contradicts or is contradicted by, however you look at this, this report,” Honig complained. “Two things he said are completely the opposite of what Robert Hur found."
Gary Bauer, of the Campaign for Working Families, tells AFN he was pleased the report was published but was angry Hur did not recommend charges.
“I was angry,” Bauer tells AFN, “because once again there is clearly a double standard.”
