We’re way beyond stuttering now.
Properly Subversive
After last week’s meltdown on national TV in which President Joe Biden’s diminished mental capacity took center stage, the only way Democrats can keep the White House in 2024 is to cut the old man loose and tee-up somebody – anybody at this late date – to take on Donald Trump.
There’s no other way to see it. Americans are passengers in that old Will Rogers joke:
“When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.”
The word “painful” doesn’t begin to describe what we saw on Thursday, Feb. 8. It will go down as the beginning of the end of the Biden presidency.
Biden’s own Justice Department declined to prosecute the president for “willfully” taking government secrets and “sharing” them with others on the grounds that the president’s diminished mental capacity would make a jury conviction difficult. That’s the top line. But the meat of the report spells it out in sad detail.
Get a load of this excerpt from the Special Prosecutor’s Robert Hur’s report:
“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’). He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he “had a real difference” of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.
“In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall.”
DEVASTATING
The White House is on its heels (no doubt thanking their lucky stars for the respite provided by Sunday’s Super Bowl game) and hoping people will forget just how bad Feb. 8 was for his re-election chances. Democrats have circulated talking points to surrogates emphasizing the idea that Hur is a Republican that his report included details that were “gratuitous.” They forget to say, however, that Hur was chosen by Biden’s own attorney general and that his own AG reviewed the report before releasing it to the public. The details were absolutely not “gratuitous.” They were necessary to explain why the DOJ took a pass on prosecuting a sitting president for an obvious crime.
A prominent Democratic operative who was granted anonymity so that he could talk candidly, told a national news outlet this:
“It confirms every doubt and concern that voters have. If the only reason they didn’t charge him is because he’s too old to be charged, then how can he be president of the United States?”
Asked if Democrats must now recalculate the 2024 election, the person said: “How the f— does it not?”
Remember, that’s a loyal Democratic strategist speaking.
NOT THE ISSUE
I wish when reporting these events reporters would stop confusing age with mental ability. While getting older does sometimes dull mental sharpness, it doesn’t happen all the time and it doesn’t necessarily go to a person’s ability to do a certain job.
Joe Biden is old as president’s go. So is Donald Trump. Both make misstatements while publicly speaking.
The difference here is Joe Biden’s mental capacity – or lack thereof – is noted in a report from an objective third party. So when Biden goofs up stuff, it reinforces the fear he’s not up to the task.
Just last week the president said he recently talked with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Kohl’s dead. He meant Angela Merkel. That came just a day or so after he said he recently spoke to French President Francois Metterrand. He meant Emmanuel Macron. Metterrand died in 1996.
Going forward, any misstatements by the president are going to become fuel for the bonfire of doubts lighting up the 2024 landscape.
Democrats, it is plain to see, need an intervention.
NEVADA MATTERS
Meanwhile, back at the Nevada ranch, Republicans held a primary election last week and a GOP caucus. Both events were obliterated from the national news by the Biden implosion. In case you missed it:
Nikki Haley lost in the primary to – wait for it – None of the Above. It doesn’t get much more embarrassing than that. And, Trump swamped all comers in the GOP caucus. No surprise.
ONE MORE THING
– I’d make a joke about memory loss, but I’m drawing a blank.
(Sherman R. Frederick is a longtime Nevada writer and a member of the Nevada Press Association’s Hall of Fame. He can be reached at ShermFrederick@gmail.com.)
