It’s no excuse and only moral luck, but I am now glad that I have waited so long to conclude the Ethics Alarms inquiry into who was the worst American President. (That final post on the topic is coming this weekend, I promise.)
For important new data is coming in: The Wall Street Journal issued a report based on extensive interviews with White House insiders and Biden aides that indicates there was a years-long cover-up of the degree of cognitive decline Biden had experienced since he was Vice-President. Both the Journal’s reporting and recent New York Times articles indicate what should be treated as a national scandal but probably won’t be.
His party knew that Biden was infirm mentally and physically before he was nominated to run against then-President Trump in 2020. Once he was nominated, Joe’ true condition was hidden from the inattentive public. I knew that Biden was sinking into dementia as early as 2019; it wasn’t hard to see, and I told many friends and associates that. The ones who hated Donald Trump didn’t car. Biden’s successful 2020 campaign was constrained by the (stupid) Wuhan virus lockdown and a complicit news media oddly incurious about a Constitutional crisis materializing right before their eyes.
Once Biden was elected, the cover-up continued. Top cabinet members were unable to meet with him or even speak with him. Biden held only nine Cabinet meetings in four years! Staff regularly stood in for him at official events. Other staff were assigned to keep him from wandering off. Biden couldn’t hold morning meetings because he was “not at his best” early in the day, and he seldom was up to working past 4pm unless he had spent the day gathering his strength and what was left of his wits. Biden cancelled important national security meetings, with his aides explaining to attendees that the President had “bad days and good days.”
Biden’s condition definitely worsened over his term: while preparing the President for his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur last year regarding his mishandling of classified documents, aides told the Wall Street Journal that Biden could not repeat back scripted responses to expected questions. Hur’s report depicting a forgetful, confused and frail President was no surprise to White House staff; neither was the furious effort by the Axis to discredit Hur for stating reality.
Incredibly, or maybe not so incredibly based on the level of gaslighting we saw during the Harris campaign, Democrats were nonetheless ready to try again to sneak an increasingly senile, unfit candidate past the voters again until Biden’s descent into compete gibberish during his debate with Trump made that plan unworkable. Not unethical, mind you: the Democrats weren’t bothered by that, just as they weren’t bothered by having a figure-head President in the White House while others did his job.
And who were those faceless bureaucrats and puppetmasters who were really running the country while Biden was pretending to be President? One Democratic strategist told DailyMail.com that among the real decision-makers were Biden advisors Bruce Reed, Steve Ricchetti, and Mike Donilon. (Who?) Of course Jill Biden was in the mix somewhere. Who else? Oh, I’m sure historians will get around to finding out the truth eventually.
The critical question is why our journalists never bothered to do genuine investigative reporting when the evidence was throbbingly clear for years that Biden was a zombie POTUS. I take that back: I know why, and so do you. I guess the real question is how they can look at themselves in the mirror without gagging.
In the run-up to the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021, the then-chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith, tried in vain to talk to Biden to explain why the sudden withdrawal was dangerous and unwise. Biden wouldn’t, or couldn’t, see him. Lloyd Austin, Biden’s Secretary of Defense, had ‘increasingly rare’ direct contact with Biden over the past two years, WSJ reported. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen basically had to communicate with the President through his staff. This was all well within the reach of competent journalists to assess and write about. I thought the days of reporters conspiring to hide FDR’s inability to stand or walk and Jack Kennedy’s serious health problems were gone for good. Guess not…
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, however, soon after the disastrous debate, said that Biden was “as sharp as ever…. When I walk into the Oval Office…I have to be on top of my game.” To be fair to Karine, she has to be at the top of her game to play Trivia Pursuit with a brain-damaged 5th grader, so maybe she was being truthful for a change.
In the Daily Mail, Maureen Callahan writes ruefully that this dangerous deception was going on “while Russia invaded Ukraine, Hamas attacked Israel, and China floated spy balloons over the United States.” She calls it “the greatest political scandal since Watergate.”
The assessment is understated. That the United States appears to have had a disabled old man installed as a candidate, then President, while persons unknown and unelected actually determined policy and led the government using him as a pathetic prop and were actually going to try to pull off the scam for another four years is the stuff of bad fiction. If true, it is far, far, far worse than Watergate or any previous U.S. political scandal, even the conspiracy to derail the Trump Presidency with an investigation of false claims that he “colluded with the Russians.”
A final observation: the slowly accumulating evidence that Joe Biden was a decoy President from the very beginning of his term is, finally that missing “base” that Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” supposedly lacked. Joe’s party knew he couldn’t do the job, but hid that fact from the public with the indispensable assistance of the anti-Trump media because they believed Biden was the only one among the potential Trump rivals for President who could win the 2020 election.
If winning a Presidential election with a fake candidate isn’t stealing it, I don’t know what is.
Ethics Alarms 
“If winning a Presidential election with a fake candidate isn’t stealing it, I don’t know what is.”
Game – Set – MATCH!
PWS
The hysterically irreverent Babylon Bee: ‘Elon Is Controlling Trump‘ Complain People Controlling Biden
PWS
I heard a clip from the View complaining about Musk’s control over Trump.
-Jut
I wonder if some of his recent Executive orders can be challenged based on competency if it can be proven that those around him hid the fact that he was mentally incompetent. Some that comes to mind is the waiver to allow federal workers to work remotely for 5 years and the other relate to forgiving student loans.
It is no surprise to any of us who have been paying attention. You won’t get the Trump deranged to admit it, though. Someone told me they’d rather have a stroke victim in the Senate than Doctor Oz so I’m sure there are plenty of people who’d rather have a puppet President than Donald Trump.
How far we have fallen in educating our population.
It will be interesting to see the “tell-all” books that will be written after the fact, by whom they are written, and who gets thrown under the bus.
A few “journalists” are now offering faux apologies for not speaking out sooner, but I say take your “I’m sorry” and shove it. Trust is gone and your credibility is shot. Go away.
I recall labeling Biden our first sitting animatronic president in 2020. And we’re supposed to think any of this is news? This “blockbuster story” is insulting.
And as I said when she was running, Harris was simply Joe Biden 2.0. She has the intellectual capacity of a demented person, but she can walk without assistance. The plan was four or eight more years of the same “ignore the men behind the curtain” administration. These people are beneath contempt.
And yet, and yet, four years of gaslighting was largely endorsed and supported by the news media while my Trump-Deranged friends and relatives lied right along with them, or simply closed their eyes.
Yes. Again, “What is wrong with these people?”
Here’s THIS! Cillizza Apologizes: As A Reporter, I Should Have Pushed Harder For More Information About Biden’s Health and Decline | Video | RealClearPolitics
My response would be, “Are you fucking kidding me? You looked the other way for four years at the most egregious political story in American history, and you’re apologizing? How can you even show your face. Be gone. Get a real job.”
Exactly. This is a level 10 apology.
I think it’s in a class by itself by virtue of its incredibly preposterous length.
I think this article misses a crucial point. Joe Biden’s intellectual infirmity was the REASON he was the best candidate. The Democrats have been infatuated with the ‘professional technocracy’ thing for decades. Elected officials, especially the president, are the biggest obstacles to their political goals. As Lt. Col. Vindman said several times during Trump’s impeachment, Trump’s crime was that he was going against the interagency consensus. The interagency consensus is exactly the way Democrats have been pushing the government. “Trust the experts”. Every Democratic voter I knew in 2020 wanted Biden BECAUSE he would ‘let the experts’ do the job. Joe Biden was elected to be a figurehead by Democratic voters.
In short, Biden was the perfect Democratic Party president. He was a figurehead who could never challenge the unelected professional government class. It wasn’t really a big conspiracy to run Biden again, it was just consistent with Democratic Party governing philosophy. When Biden was exposed, they needed someone else so insubstantial that they could never challenge the professional class…enter Kamala Harris. The Democrats can vote for a completely incompetent DEI hire with a clear conscience because they are electing her to be a figurehead, and what better figurehead to inspire people but a woman of color? They don’t want a president because they don’t believe in elected officials.
Now we need to discuss Obama…
As always, Michael, you are absolutely spot on. They were ready to keep Harris out front for the next eight years. Again, she could walk unassisted, read her cue cards and not freeze up. What else do you need?
Biden and Harris and their ilk “are not bugs, they are features.”
Yep, this is exactly right. Well written, Michael.
It has been pointed out that not a single “journalist” asked a question in the presser the other day about the WSJ expose’ on hiding Biden’s known decline.
Because, apparently, Karine wouldn’t call on any of then who might ask.
So a double. One unethical press secretary, and a dependable segment of leftist media reps who could be counted on to not ask the embarrassing question.
Jack,
An outstanding take-down. I have little to add other than the apparent reality Democrats have little or no ability for introspection. Heck, nearly half of those casting votes wanted a candidate who’s fully-cognizant mental acuity that was no better than the demented shell she and her party friends shoved aside.
It’s pathetic. Simply pathetic.
What Joel said!
PWS
Thanks Paul…though you would have correctly written “whose” rather than “who’s.”
Not so sure, I prefer the benefit of low expectations….
PWS