The Lie that Will Define Biden’s Legacy
Historians will one day look back on Biden’s presidency and marvel at the fact that America elected a senile man to the highest office in the land. More shocking still, he remained in office for his full term and even “won” his party’s nod to seek a second term.
From the day Biden launched his presidential campaign in April 2019, it was clear that he had changed during his two years out of the national spotlight. His speech had become noticeably less fluent, his words were often slurred, and he struggled to communicate effectively without the aid of a teleprompter.
The conservative media reported on these early signs of dementia, but Democrats and the so-called journalists from the legacy media dismissed the reports as right-wing propaganda. And the pandemic, which was raging at the time, allowed Biden to limit his public appearances, shielding himself from the level of scrutiny typically faced by a presidential candidate.
Five years later, Biden’s condition has deteriorated significantly. Yet Democrats refused to admit the truth until Biden’s disastrous debate performance in late June left them with no other choice.
When videos surfaced just two weeks before the debate that showed Biden’s very public and very humiliating senior moments at the G7 summit, the Juneteenth celebration, and a star-studded Los Angeles fundraiser, Jean-Pierre told reporters they were “cheap fakes.” The videos had been edited by Republicans, she said, to make Biden appear dazed and confused and therefore unfit for the presidency. Right.
On Thursday morning, the Wall Street Journal published a feature story that detailed the extraordinary efforts White House aides undertook to maintain the ruse that Biden was fine. The article, titled “How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge,” is based on interviews with “nearly 50 people, including those who participated in or had direct knowledge of the operations.”
For what it’s worth, the authors begin by stating, “The administration denied Biden has declined.” If that were true, this article would never have been written.
The primary job of the men and women surrounding Biden appeared to have been hiding his infirmities from the world. They accomplished this by limiting his duties and minimizing his interactions with outsiders, which sometimes included members of his own cabinet and Democratic leaders. Aides regularly told “visitors to keep meetings focused” and as short as possible.
The article noted that Biden has good days and not so good days.
If the president was having an off day, meetings could be scrapped altogether. On one such occasion, in the spring of 2021, a national security official explained to another aide why a meeting needed to be rescheduled. “He has good days and bad days, and today was a bad day so we’re going to address this tomorrow,” the former aide recalled the official saying.
The degree of protection around Biden was unprecedented. According to the authors:
Presidents always have gatekeepers. But in Biden’s case, the walls around him were higher and the controls greater, according to Democratic lawmakers, donors and aides who worked for Biden and other administrations. There were limits over who Biden spoke with, limits on what they said to him and limits around the sources of information he consumed.
Throughout his presidency, a small group of aides stuck close to Biden to assist him, especially when traveling or speaking to the public. “They body him to such a high degree,” a person who witnessed it said, adding that the “hand holding” is unlike anything other recent presidents have had.
The article said that top administration officials such as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, senior counselor Steve Ricchetti and National Economic Council head Lael Brainard, often took on roles and duties one might expect the president himself to perform.
Biden did not like negative articles about himself or unfavorable poll numbers. Therefore, “Press aides who compiled packages of news clips for Biden were told by senior staff to exclude negative stories about the president.”
The Journal discussed Biden’s extensive preparation for his interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated his mishandling of classified documents. Although he worked with aides three hours a day for a week, the interview did not go well. “While preparing last year for his interview with Robert K. Hur, the president couldn’t recall lines that his team discussed with him,” the article said. It’s no wonder the Department of Justice refused to release the transcript to the public.
The article noted that, “at events, aides often repeated instructions to him, such as where to enter or exit a stage, that would be obvious to the average person.”
Several lawmakers “felt Biden was unusually hard to reach,” compared to other presidents. In 2021, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) served as the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “Alarmed by what he viewed as overly optimistic comments from Biden as the administration assembled plans for the [U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan],” he told the Journal he tried, but failed, to get an audience with Biden.
“I was begging them to set expectations low,” said Smith, who had worked extensively on the issue and harbored concerns about how the withdrawal might go. He sought to talk to Biden directly to share his insights about the region but couldn’t get on the phone with him, Smith said.
After the disastrous withdrawal, which left 13 U.S. service members and more than 170 Afghans dead, Smith made a critical comment to the Washington Post about the administration lacking a “clear-eyed view” of the U.S.-backed Ashraf Ghani government’s durability. It was among comments that triggered an angry phone call from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who ended up getting an earful from the frustrated chairman. Shortly after, Smith got an apologetic call from Biden. It was the only phone call Biden made to Smith in his four years in office, Smith said.
“The Biden White House was more insulated than most,” Smith said. “I spoke with Barack Obama on a number of occasions when he was president and I wasn’t even chairman of the committee.”
The Journal spoke to Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) who said he was concerned that Biden didn’t have the energy that the job required.
Manchin noticed that Biden’s staff played a much bigger role driving his agenda than he had experienced in other administrations. Manchin referred to them as the “eager beavers”—a group that included then-White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain. “They were going, ‘I’ll take care of that,’” Manchin said.
We didn’t need the Wall Street Journal to tell us that Biden is not fine. His condition has been clear for years. And every individual who worked to cover it up from First Lady Jill Biden and Biden’s personal physician to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the legacy media, is complicit in a massive fraud against the American electorate.
And yes, this lie will define Biden’s legacy.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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