Sleepy Joe,” as Donald Trump likes to call him, will be the 46th president of the United States—assuming you trust CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times or the Washington Post. At 77, Joe Biden has a lifetime of dubious political experience, most notably as vice president to Barack Obama. Yet he was hardly the strongest candidate the Democrats had to offer this year.
Though not as insufferably entitled and tainted by sleaze as Hillary Clinton, Biden suffers from one additional, major flaw: his evidently waning mental faculties. Many believe that Biden’s lapses are not simply the slowing down of senility, but the beginnings of dementia.
Diagnosis at a distance is a dubious endeavor and one that psychiatrists normally eschew. All the rules have been broken, however, since Trump took office, with a constant stream of “expert” analyses of the president as a narcissist or psychopath.
In Biden’s case, the signs of mental dysfunction are readily apparent to anyone who has an elderly relative with memory problems and failing concentration. Political rivals, commentators, and the general public should not jump to conclusions, but Biden certainly shows a serious degree of cognitive decline that would be worrying for anyone, let alone for someone seeking the keys to the White House.
Is Biden in the early stage of dementia? The Alzheimer’s Society describes the following signs and symptoms of this disease:
- Failing memory for recent events and experiences;
- Difficulty in concentrating, planning or organizing (e.g. making decisions, solving problems or performing a sequence of tasks);
- Communication problems, such as inability to follow a conversation or failing to find the right word;
- Impaired visuospatial skills: difficulty in judging distances (e.g. on stairs) and in seeing things three-dimensionally;
- Loss of orientation to time and place.
Biden does not consistently display all of these anomalies. Problematically, though, basic factual errors and wrong words are becoming more and more frequent. Here are some examples of his tenuous grasp of pertinent detail:
- Campaigning in Iowa for the Democratic candidacy in August 2019, Biden asserted “we choose science over fiction,” followed by the punch-line: “we choose truth over fact”
- At the Asian and Latino Coalition in Des Moines, “poor kids,” he exclaimed, are “just as talented as white kids.”
- In September 2019 at the Workers’ Presidential Summit in Philadelphia, Biden claimed that tax credits “would put 720 million women back in the workforce.”
- At a rally prior to Super Tuesday, he stumbled on the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women are created by the . . . you know, the thing!”
- At the South Carolina Democratic primary debate, he told the audience of “150 million fatal shootings” since his opponent Bernie Sanders had voted for gun manufacturers’ exemption from liability.
- In his home state of Delaware in July, he erroneously welcomed folks to “Kingswood Community Center” after an awkward pause he realized his mistake, but somehow made it worse: “Actually that’s the one I used to work. It’s a joke . . . You know where you were.”
These constant fumbles can all be veiwed on the unforgiving internet, and they are excruciating to watch. He also becomes irritable when challenged, another sign of faulty cognition. In Michigan, he told a man who had criticized him on gun control: “You’re full of shit.” At a New Hampshire rally in February, he reacted to a woman’s doubts about him standing up for workers, snapping “you’re a lying, dog-faced pony soldier.” Imagine the furor if Trump had abused a female voter like that. The other day, Biden called a black reporter a cocaine junkie after the latter had suggested cognitive testing.
Arguably, some of Biden’s apparent mistakes betray an underlying attitude towards race. In May he told a black radio host that if you are African American and considering voting for Donald Trump, “you ain’t black.” This suggested a sense of ownership of an entire racial group by their white saviors in the Democratic Party.
Compounding this, last week in an interview held by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists, Biden said that there was great diversity of opinion among Latinos, unlike among African Americans. He tried to explain away both these remarks, but to some, they were revealing of a mind that has lost its political discipline. Candor comes with disinhibition.
Some supporters attribute these gaffes to stress (although that is not very reassuring for a would-be president). In a recent Zogby poll, the majority of respondents believed that Biden has dementia, including one-third of all Democratic voters. It seems probable that he has mild cognitive impairment, a condition that tends to progress to dementia sooner or later. If he were to take the Montreal Cognitive Function Test, the electorate would have a better idea of whether he is fit to lead.
But the Democrats don’t want him tested, either by a neuropsychological instrument or by open political debate.
The coronavirus lockdown, therefore, has been timely and beneficial for Biden. Locked away, he has been spared from addressing mass rallies, with the likelihood of underwhelmed audiences and far from full venues. He has not been aggressively questioned or faced the press. He refused an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News. Now his people appear to want to cancel the three televised debates, a norm of U.S. presidential elections for decades.
Meanwhile, his grandstanding adversary has been deprived of his most effective means of campaigning—mass political rallies in towns and cities across the nation. By comparison, Biden has reached those who bother to listen by facing his computer camera in a windowless home basement. But even with a script to follow, Biden repeatedly blunders. He finds using Zoom confusing; at times he seems to even be wondering where he is.
What impact will Biden’s mental faculties have on the election? Of course, the Democrats simply want to oust Trump at any cost, and Biden is merely an acceptable figurehead for the ascendant hard Left’s campaign, a kind of Trojan horse for an American experiment with totalitarian government.
Much will be made of Kamala Harris, who will effectively succeed him from day one and govern the country as the White House goes woke. While reclined, sipping tea in the Oval Office, Biden will really have lasted less time than the ninth president, Willian Henry Harrison, who served just 31 days before he died of typhoid pneumonia.
For the first time since broadcasting began, there may be no presidential debate. The Democrats know that Biden would be at risk of a catastrophic performance under pressure from Trump, who would pull no punches. Opinion polling shows that the American people like Biden more, the less they hear him speak. So he will be prevented from speaking at all. The New York Times has blatantly supported this tactic, leaving Trump to shout into the wind.
Democrats think that they’ll win the election in November without any debates, without a convention, without public rallies, without a real campaign, and without voters visiting polling stations. To have any chance, Trump must unmask the man whose cognitive deficits surely make him unsuitable as commander-in-chief in a dangerous world.
A President Biden could not ably govern or make cogent decisions. His misreading of an emerging conflict could cause rapid escalation and needless loss of life.
How can Trump best do that? Three ways.
First, constantly query Biden’s condition and demand cognitive tests. Release his own test result and challenge him to do likewise.
Secondly, ensure that the debates are held, with or without Biden. In his absence, use a cut-out figure wearing the familiar black mask.
Thirdly, counter every platform point, every comment, and every policy statement by Biden with clear, hard, undeniable facts. Demonstrate Biden’s subversive ideological bearing, his corrupt nature, his kowtowing to China, his shady dealings for the financial benefit of his son Hunter’s career (whose usurious credit card business imposed rates from 24 to well over 50 percent APR, making economic life perilous for the most marginalized people in society). A Trump War Room needs to work 24/7 doing nothing less.
In other words, unmask Biden.