The most important observation may be that the mainstream media is covering this disturbing episode rather than burying it.
President Biden looked in the audience on Wednesday for Representative Jackie Walorski, Republican of Indiana, during a White House conference on ending hunger, apparently forgetting that Ms. Walorski had died last month.
“Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie?” Mr. Biden said as he thanked lawmakers who had sponsored legislation on the hunger issue. The president appeared to be confused at her absence and said something under his breath about whether she had planned to be at the event.
In fact, Ms. Walorski was killed on Aug. 3 in a car accident in her district, along with two of her congressional aides, when a vehicle she was in collided head-on with another. The driver of the oncoming car was also killed.
Mr. Biden did not correct himself during the remarks, but the incident quickly went viral on Twitter and other social media platforms, with some people seizing on the moment as evidence that Mr. Biden, who is 79, lacks the mental capacity to be president.
“Some people”? Not to throttle a theme, but why just “some people”? Isn’t forgetting that someone is dead (when you made a public statement about her death just a month earlier) a classic sign of dementia? And why is this a surprise to anyone who has been paying even a little attention to Biden since before he was handed the Democratic Party’s nomination?
Of course, after that straightforward and factual account, the Times slipped back into familiar “Republicans pounce” territory. “The president’s political opponents have been pushing that attack since he took office.,” the news item says. It’s not an attack! It’s a legitimate concern for any American when it becomes obvious that the leader of the nation is sliding into senility. Again: why aren’t Democrats and the President’s supporters equally alarmed? Integrity? Honesty? Responsibility?
The fact that Biden is often disoriented and confused, however, shouldn’t be news. More significant was the debacle afterwards, in which the White House’s incompetent and none-too-swift paid liar, Karine Jean-Pierre, made a fool of herself by insisting that Joe was on the ball as a always. From the Newsbusters report:
ABC’s Cecilia Vega broke through as the second reporter called on, wondering “what happened at the hunger event” as Biden “seemed to indicate she might be in the room.” In response, Jean-Pierre claimed Biden was simply “acknowledging her incredible work” on food insecurity and, because her family will meet him on Friday, “she was on his mind” and “top of mind.”
Whatever “top of mind” means. More:
Vega wasn’t moved: “He said, ‘Jackie, are you here? Where is Jackie? She must not be here.’” Jean-Pierre doubled down that “she was on top of mind,” so it fell to CNN’s Phil Mattingly a few minutes later, who admitted he was “trying to get my head around” her excuse. “Why was he looking for her? I’m not trying to be snarky here,” he added. Unfortunately, Jean-Pierre stuck to her explanation for what should otherwise be viewed as a sign of cognitive decline.
“I think people can understand…when someone is at top of mind. And — and this was such an important, uh, such an important event when we’re talking about hunger,” Jean-Pierre said.
Is “on top of mind” anything like “One Top of Old Smokey”? Is it considered normal to think dead people are alive when you’re “talking about hunger”? Karine’s fumbling is hard to read about, but remember, she’s historic, being female, black and gay, so it’s all cool:
Despite his apology to Jean-Pierre for asking, CBS News Radio’s Steven Portnoy said he was “compelled to ask…about Congresswoman Walorski.” When Jean-Pierre wanted to know “why,” Portnoy insisted her “memory…and history requires some clarity here.”
Portnoy even gave Jean-Pierre an out to claim it was put in the teleprompter, but she didn’t take it and instead accused him of “jumping to a lot of conclusions”:
PORTNOY: Can you explain where the mistake was made? Did the President — was the President confused? Was there something written in the teleprompter that he didn’t recognize? Can you just help us understand what happened?
JEAN-PIERRE: I mean, you’re jumping to a lot of conclusions.
PORTNOY: I’m simply seeking [inaudible] to find out —
JEAN-PIERRE: No, but you’re —
PORTNOY: — what happened here?
JEAN-PIERRE: — but I — no, I hear you, Steven and I’m answering the question that you’re jumping to a lot of conclusions. I just answered the question. If I had — if that had been the case, I would have stated that, right? I have — I would have stated that clearly — have stated what you just laid out. What I have said is that she was on top of mind and that he is going to see her family in just two days time on Friday to honor her, to honor her work, to honor, uh, to honor her legacy, if you will.
(….)
PORTNOY: Would you be prepared to release the prepared remarks that the President had in the teleprompter just so we can understand?
JEAN-PIERRE: I’m not understanding why — why that would be — would be necessary. We always share the remarks that the President had, um, uh, even you know, delivered. That’s probably gonna be on the website. Uh, not really sure what that has to do with anything. I just answered the question about her being on top of mind. I don’t think that’s any — that’s unusual.
Clearly, the “top of mind” gibberish was decided upon in some pre-press conference meeting as the go-to deflection, and Karine holds on to it like a life preserver…except that it is self-evidently stupid. Note also that it isn’t Fox News’ Peter Doocy leading the charge, but Biden’s usual propagandists. That suggests that this episode might be a tipping point for Jean-Pierre. There is a point of swallowing garbage that even the most biased reporters can’t abide, because it destroys their own credibility so they can’t be effective partisans any more.
Speaking of “more”:
The Washington Post’s Matt Viser took a similar track and leaned into his role as Team Biden’s potted plant before asking about Biden’s now-infamous gaffe: “I think we all totally get why she’s top of mind. You’ve made that case pretty effectively. But I think the confusing part is why, if she and the family is top of mind, does the President think that she’s living and in the room?”
Jean-Pierre continued to gaslight by claiming she “[doesn’t] find that confusing” and “many people” have behaved this way and called out for someone because they’re “top of mind” with that being the case because Walorski was passionate about food insecurity.
Really, Karine? Name another example where having a dead person on one’s mind causes one to think the deceased is in the room. Here is my hero in this exchange:
In the back rows, some reporters decided they had enough, including Newsmax’s James Rosen: “I have John Lennon top of mind just about every day but I’m not looking around for him anywhere.”
Jean-Pierre thought she had him caught with this dead fish of a zinger: “When you sign a bill for John Lennon — Lennon as president, then we can have this conversion.”
Oh, good one, Karine. You’re an idiot.
From there, chaos ensued. EWTN’s Owen Jensen first wondered “why don’t you just apologize” and continued as Jean-Pierre tried to escape by calling on a friendly reporter in USA Today’s Michael Collins. Unfortunately for her, the shouting didn’t stop, led by al-Jazerra English’s Kimberly Halkett stating the fact that “[t]hese moments of confusion are happening with increasing frequency” and that “Americans…have concerns.” Jean-Pierre kept calling out to Collins and later scolded Halkett…
Collins’ job apparently was to change the subject, but Halkett kept demanding a real answer other than “top of mind” from poor, dim, desperate Karine. Finally:
A few minutes after things calmed down, Real Clear Politics’ Philip Wegmann had the last Walorski question and tried to see if Jean-Pierre would return to reality: “Does he believe he handled that reference appropriately or is this something that he would like to get back?” Jean-Pierre played dumb and, after acknowledging it’s “a question…many of you have had,” proclaimed “my answer is certainly not going to change.”
Well…Karine doesn’t have to play dumb.
Further observations:
- Don’t the aspiring totalitarians in the White House realize that such obvious obfuscating increases public anxiety and media hostility rather than reducing either? This is redolent of the old Soviet Union hiding the illnesses that eventually killed their elderly Premiers.
- The fact that Biden’s cognitive problems are being handled with such deliberate deception raises other issues, such as 1) Is Biden really the President, or is he a walking Woodrow Wilson, incapacitated but being uses as a puppet by others; 2) If the White House will lie to this extent when the truth is obvious, what won’t they lie about?
- Did it ever occur to these morons to simply say, “Yes, the President was confused for a few seconds, and momentarily forgot about Rep. Walorski’s tragic death. It’s called a “senior moment.”
- Those who voted for Biden in 2020 knew, or should have known, that this was coming. They are accountable.
- So is Jill Biden. She is an ethics villain, and an epic hypocrite, insisting on a “Dr.” title but without the professional integrity to act on the fact that her husband is disabled. Of all the First Ladies to emulate, Edith Wilson would not be the responsible choice.
- Another news aggregator bites the metaphorical dust: Memeorandum, which I have used as a last resort to find an objective, unbiased, news tracking resource, buried this story deep in its collection of breaking events, behind Marjorie Taylor Greene’s husband filing for divorce, as if I should care, and the death of Coolio, whom Joe will be looking for next.
Ethics Alarms 
Perfect timing!
According to “Occupy Democrats Logic” a facebook group dedicated to mocking Occupy Democrats so I’m inclined to believe them, this was a fake tweet.
I mean, all I have is the picture of a Tweet that someone I trust said was deleted, so I suppose it could be a hoax I fell for… But I just scrolled the Occupy Democrats Logic Facebook page and didn’t see that. Can you link?
Well, I misremembered who posted that it was fake. It was The meme policeman. So I’m questioning it, since they don’t provide a source either way…
Huh… I’m torn. If it’s a hoax, consider me got.
And about two weeks ago, the President signed a bill renaming a VA clinic here in Indiana after Walorski.
The media can’t be stupid enough to buy a “senior moment” excuse, though I’m surprised the White House didn’t try it. I’m also surprised media outlets sympathetic to the President didn’t just reframe the incident as a senior moment themselves without prompting.
Could this be the tipping point in the media’s treatment of Biden?
It certainly isn’t the Democrats’ staunchest supporters getting clear eyes. When I pointed out that Biden has called Harris “President” more than once, forgotten the name of his cabinet members and made up nonsensical words while speaking, some nitwit responded with an entire comment consisting of “covfefe” multiple times.
As if a typo in a stupid tweet is the equivalent of the POTUS forgetting what office he holds, who his most important advisors are and if someone is dead or alive.
“The media can’t be stupid enough to buy a “senior moment” excuse”
Not stupid, no, but they’re definitely partisan enough to accept such an explanation and move on. Karine was just too dumb or obstinate to give it to them. They were all trying to lead her to some kind of mild statement that Biden had a “brain fart”, and she refused to take the easy out they were offering. She’s so bad at that job.
What we’re seeing isn’t the press finally getting fed up with being fed shit and told it’s birthday cake. No, this is all precisely on schedule. If Biden had stopped in the middle of a speech to call out to a corpse six months or a year ago, it wouldn’t have been mentioned by ABC, CBS, et al. But it’s safe to do so now, because it’s time to start setting the table for Joe’s departure, likely scheduled for February or March. We’ll be seeing more of this kind of mild resistance to the White House narrative that Biden is hale, hearty, and engaged. They will slowly increase doubt about his abilities, and sometime in December we’ll start seeing mainstream pundits talking about how Joe saved the Republic from Trump and has earned a well-deserved retirement. It wouldn’t be fair to expect him to finish his term, he’s already done so much for all of us…
What’s worse about this episode is that we’re only seeing the clip of what Biden said, the context we’re not seeing is that immediately previous to Biden taking the stage, the organizers of the event played a minute and a half Tribute to the former congresswoman. Not only did Biden forget that she had passed on, he’d forgotten after being reminded literally seconds before the statement.
I’d written about the 25th amendment during the early days of the Biden administration, and it seems evergreen.
“I’ve made some colorful jokes recently; How Joe Biden is a prop from Weekend at Bernie’s, How Benny Hill music should start playing whenever he boards or disembarks from Air Force One, How we’re not sure if it’s Joe or Major biting the White House staff and pooping in the halls. Those are unfair. I know they’re not true, or at least in the case of the Air Force One stairs, it’s true, but sad. When you compare Joe Biden in 2021 to Joe Biden from the Obama years, or Joe Biden 20 years ago, the difference is incredibly stark. I’m actually not going to link to videos, because this is one of those things where if you believe me, you don’t need the link, and if you don’t believe me, you’ll think I’m cherry-picking. Do your own damn work, plebs: Go to YouTube, search “Joe Biden Speech 2016” and watch a video or two, and then turn on CNN to compare. Even with a sympathetic news organization, you simply can’t cover the fact that Joe is 78 years old and slipping.
Added to that, Kamala Harris is hangry. She loves the idea that she might be the first female President (Not counting Edith). The first black President. The first Asian President. First first first first first. She’s not particularly interested in being a good or popular President. And I don’t think she could be; She dropped out of the primary before the embarrassment of losing brutally in her own home state, and her record is abysmal.
So when you have Joe Biden’s relative infirmity alongside Harris’ ambition, I think the 25th Amendment isn’t as outside the pale as it was for Trump. It’s more likely that Joe just dies of something, and that would be a much cleaner path for Harris (Joe Biden’s food taster should be getting hazard pay.), but I think The Plan is probably for Joe to retire in 2024, and have Harris step up. Joe is already slipping and calling her “President Harris” every now and again. Is that a mistake? A Freudian Slip? Did Joe think it was 2025? Probably the former. Probably.
But if we get to the point where Joe isn’t capable, and it’s obvious that he isn’t capable, which isn’t impossible, because there’s a long haul between now and 2024, then as opposed to a situation where a vote for or against the removal of Joe Biden is a direct partisan popularity contest, we’d have a situation where we’d want to legitimately look at the merits of removal. Frankly, if it got to the point that the 25th was actually invoked, Biden probably wouldn’t fight it; I have the impression he ran because he wanted to beat Trump, and the Democrat bench was really shallow and he was afraid they’d blow it, more than he actually wanted to be President. If he did contest it…. God that would be messy. From a partisan perspective: There’s no chance that a Republican takes office following Harris making a section 4 invocation, the VP becomes the President, and unless Harris tapped a Republican to be VP, the rest doesn’t even warrant conjecture. But how would Republicans or Democrats vote? I don’t know… And we’re pretty deep into the reeds of “what if”.”
https://humbletalent.substack.com/p/the-25th-amendment
HT
Kamala visited the DMZ in South Korea and stated that the US has a long and enduring alliance with the Republic of North Korea.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/harris-ripped-gaffe-touting-us-alliance-republic-north-korea-kim-jong-un-laughing-us
For someone concerned about threats to democracy how does she reconcile the name Democratic People Republic of Korea?
Even Fox News is rushing to her defense claiming it was an accidental mistake and stating the official name of South Korea is the Republic of Korea. Yet she called it the Republic of North Korea which is neither the official name of either country.
Jack, I don’t think the question is raised if Biden is a walking Woodrow Wilson. That question was raised and answered long ago. Now, every chance we have to see Biden just cements the fact that someone who is not the elected President is running the country, for good or ill.
“Ignore the man behind the curtain,” the White House shouts. That man is definitely not Joe Biden. I rather wish we knew who it was.
Coolio died? Took a Fantastic Voyage to Gangsta’s Paradise.
As for the Biden stuff, it sounds like the press was trying to give Karine an out and she was too dumb to take it.
Scary thought: Biden is a puppet and Kamala is pulling the strings.
-Jut
In unrelated? News:
Monica Medina is the new special envoy for biodiversity and water resources (Not to put too fine a point on it, but that translates to the administrations new diplomat for plants and animals). What everyone seems to be leaving out is that Ambassador Dolittle’s husband is none other than White House Cheif of Staff Ron Klain’s wife. I guess they saw fit to overlook the obvious nepotism because she’s the only person on earth that can speak to animals and trees.
“Ambassador Dolittle’s husband is none other than White House Cheif of Staff Ron Klain’s wife”
Gak…. Obviously, Ambassador Dolittle’s husband is Ron Klain, she is his wife.
Given Mrs. Klain’s uncanny skills, maybe she’s been in charge of communicating with Joe Biden.
If I could walk with the vegetables, talk with the vegetables
Grunt, squeak, squawk with the vegetables
And they could squeak, and squawk, and speak, and talk to me
Maybe Joe’s already in a vegetative state!
A guardian should be appointed for Joe. Dr. Jill should be charged with elder abuse. This is absolutely unprecedented. It’s not as if Alzheimer’s isn’t a well-known condition these days. We’re not living in the time of King Lear.
Obama stated something to the effect that when he looks out . . .he sees the fallen heros, many of whom are here today. I could not remember the exact wording. But hey, it is not surprising that Democrats see dead people because they are a revered voting bloc.
That got a guffaw. Made my day, Chris.
I wondered who would make that joke.
This website – https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news – claims to present the left, right, and center views of the news. I have it bookmarked, but haven’t looked at it enough to really judge whether it achieves its goal.
I’ll check it out as well. Thanks.