White House staffers are doing everything they can to hide the President’s cognitive and physical decline
White House staffers are working “meticulously” behind the scenes to cover the extent of Joe Biden’s physical and cognitive decline, according to a new report from The New York Post.
The Post reports that staffers doing everything they can to ensure the President operates within his “good hours” of 10am to 4pm and avoids situations where he is liable to make embarrassing gaffes.
As well as his worsening mental state, which was on full display during Thursday night’s dismal debate, Biden’s physical state is also deteriorating. Footage of the President being carefully guided off the debate stage by his wife, Dr Jill Biden, has generated widespread comment on social media in the last few days.
Shocking scene of First Lady Jill Biden aiding POTUS Dementia Joe slowly down 3 steps while I walk off the stage like a boss. Pathetic! Trump 2024. pic.twitter.com/AQA12h3UIp
— Donald J. Trump (Parody) (@realDonParody) June 28, 2024
According to The Post, the President wears orthopedic shoes and has undergone a regimen of physical therapy to treat his growing stiffness.
“I know many of these people and how the White House operates,” said Chandler West, the former deputy director of photography under Biden, in an Instagram story after the debate.
“They will say he has a ‘cold’ or just experienced a ‘bad night,’ but for weeks and months, in private, they have all said what we saw last night—Joe is not as strong as he was just a couple of years ago,” West said.
“The debate was not the first bad day, and it’s not gonna be the last.”
“It’s time for Joe to go.”
The clamor for Biden to make way for a fitter, younger candidate is growing. The New York Times offered a devastating editorial on Biden’s chances of success and called for him to withdraw from the presidential race for the good of the party and the nation.
A snap CNN poll, taken minutes after the debate, showed that 67% of viewers believed Trump won. A more recent poll suggests that nearly three-quarters of registered voters, or 72%, believe Biden is mentally unfit for the job.
So far, however, Biden has indicated his determination to continue, and he also has the support of key allies including former president Barack Obama, whose wife Michelle has been touted as a potential replacement for Biden.
In a Twitter post on Friday, Barack Obama said that Biden is still the right man to take on Donald Trump in November.
“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” Obama wrote on Twitter.
“Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”
Axios have made it clear that the deciding vote for whether Biden throws in the towel rests, ultimately, with a “Biden oligarchy” that includes his wife, sister and close White House advisors, and not the party.
“The only way President Biden steps aside, despite his debate debacle, is if the same small group of lifelong loyalists who enabled his run suddenly — and shockingly — decides it’s time for him to call it quits.”
“This decades-long kitchen cabinet operates as an extended family, council of elders and governing oligarchy. These allies alone hold sway over decisions big and small in Biden’s life and presidency.”