Political analyst Mark Halperin said on Friday that he finds it irritating that former President Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden are still suggesting that his disastrous June 2024 debate performance was an isolated event.
The former president and former first lady went on “The View” Thursday and acknowledged his debate showing was “terrible,” but Biden said it was due to being “sick” while his wife suggested it was not representative of his normal state. Halperin said on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” that it is demonstrably false that the debate was the only time Biden exhibited cognitive decline. (RELATED: After Democratic Panic, Harris Lines Up Softball Interview Tour)
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“There were moments that were a little rough, but for the most part, he was there. But not because of cognitive decline, but just because of the desire to spin, he said a bunch of stuff that just wasn’t true,” Halperin said. “And they can continue to say that all that happened was that he had a cold and one bad debate. They can continue to act as if that’s the truth. And you don’t need an investigative reporting ability to know that that’s not the truth.”
“We saw him in public many times, exhibiting cognitive decline over many years,” he continued. “So I find it frustrating as a journalist and concerning as a human being that they’re still out there trying to sell America on the story that this was a one-off and that he was fine the rest of his presidency when, again, you don’t need inside sources, as I say. You just need a C-SPAN subscription.”
Halperin previously noted that Biden publicly seemed to call on the late Republican Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski to stand up in September 2022, appearing to forget that she had perished in a car crash the previous month.
Special counsel Robert Hur also released a February 2024 report finding evidence that the former president willfully kept classified documents. However, the special counsel chose not to bring charges against Biden because the jury might perceive him as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The transcript of Hur’s interview with the then-president showed memory lapses, such as appearing to forget when he began and ended his vice presidency, along with the date of his late son Beau’s death.
Former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer also suggested Sunday that he noticed Biden exhibiting cognitive decline in April 2024.
“I was at a White House reception and he was bad. He was quite bad in it,” he said. “And he told the same story twice. He just seemed mostly old.”
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