Note to reporters interviewing President Joe Biden’s proxies: Their vocabulary does not include words such as “cognitive function.”
During an interview Wednesday on Scripps News’ “On the Scene,” Biden campaign spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod apparently lost her ability to process words when host Chris Stewart asked her a question about the importance of mental acuity in this fall’s presidential race.
“How much should a … candidate’s cognitive function factor into that decision when someone votes?” Stewart said.
“I don’t even know what that question means,” Elrod responded.
“Well, I mean, when they vote, should they be thinking about which candidate, how they’re functioning cognitively?” he said.
“Sure absolutely, they should,” Elrod replied sharply with a glare that would curdle milk.
“Alright, we’ll leave it at that,” Stewart said, clearly realizing that was all he was going to get from the spokeswoman.
“How much should a candidate’s cognitive function factor into that decision when someone votes?”
Top Biden spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod: “I don’t even know what that question means.”
AWKWARD! pic.twitter.com/Zl8uh2Nesr
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 5, 2024
The question, of course, was an extremely vital one.
On Thursday, Biden embarrassed the nation again during a D-Day commemoration ceremony in France by doing a half-sitting, half-standing move while French President Emmanuel Macron and first lady Jill Biden remained standing.
The video showed the president’s wife covering her mouth as if instructing him to remain standing.
Awkward 😬 pic.twitter.com/3KNLco85hj
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 6, 2024
After the ceremony, the first lady, holding Biden’s hand, walked away from the ceremony, leaving Macron alone to talk with the veterans.
Jill, Ed.D., escorts Joe Biden out as French President Macron stays behind to greet veterans pic.twitter.com/n4rpRgdbv5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 6, 2024
A report Tuesday from The Wall Street Journal also highlighted the president’s cognitive decline based on accounts from more than 45 Republican and Democratic lawmakers and staffers.
The report painted a picture of an 81-year-old commander in chief who increasingly relies on note cards and cheat sheets during meetings, sometimes struggling to be heard or understood.
Some said Biden would drift off at times, closing his eyes for extended periods. His demeanor and grasp of policy details were described as varying day-to-day.
“You couldn’t be there and not feel uncomfortable,” one person who met with the president during Ukraine aid negotiations in January told the Journal. Others said he frequently deferred questions to aides.
In one meeting, Biden took 10 minutes after entering the room just to get started, then largely relied on note cards to state obvious points everyone had already agreed on, according to the report. Participants could barely hear the president, and “much of the conversation didn’t include him” as staffers had to field questions directed at Biden.
Will Biden’s cognitive ability be a critical factor in the election?
In a February follow-up with House Speaker Mike Johnson on U.S. liquid natural gas export policy, Biden seemed unaware the policy was already in effect, the Journal reported. He wrongly claimed to Johnson that it was “only a study” despite it being an active policy, leaving the Republican leader “dismayed,” according to witnesses.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recalled Biden “rambling” and mumbling through debt ceiling negotiations last year, with his ability to command the room varying “day to day.” McCarthy said Biden always required note cards: “He couldn’t negotiate another way.”
When McCarthy asked lawmakers to follow up with Biden to hammer out the final details of the debt ceiling plan, they were frustrated.
The former speaker told the Journal that the president kept revisiting old ground and seemed to forget how far along the negotiations had progressed.
“He was going back to all the old stuff that had been done for a long time,” McCarthy said. “And he was shocked when I’d say: ‘No, Mr. President. We talked about that meetings ago. We are done with that.”
The White House pushed back on these reports, with spokesman Andrew Bates calling the accounts “false claims” made as a “political tactic.”
In another clip from her appearance with Stewart on Scripps News, Elrod said with a straight face that Biden is “sharper than ever” and that “he has achieved more as president than at least the past four to five presidents before him.”
Top Biden campaign spokesman Adrienne Elrod: Biden is “sharper than ever” 😬 pic.twitter.com/XmwxDoxvMH
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 5, 2024
The cognitive decline of the president seems to get more obvious by the day, and the White House has to know that few Americans believe the narrative about Biden being a “savvy and effective leader.”
The continuing sight of a president who has to be led around like a child with a nursemaid is not only embarrassing, it’s also dangerous.
