On Wednesday, the panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" had a meltdown over the Wall Street Journal's exposé on President Joe Biden's mental decline based on the testimony of those who have witnessed it behind closed doors.
The WSJ piece didn't hold back, painting a picture of an 81-year-old president struggling with memory and communication during big meetings. Nothing in the report would shock anyone who has seen Biden speak in public over the past few years, but the panelists were furious about another story about Biden's mental fitness as the 2024 election looms.
Joe Scarborough, doing his best Pauline Kael impression, insisted that everyone he's spoken to thinks Biden is perfectly cogent:
I could go on and on with things that Kevin McCarthy and others have said about negotiating with Joe Biden. I could also talk about what the French delegation said when they were negotiating with him, and what they told me. And friends that I have in that French delegation that were a part of those negotiations, who said that Macron came out like, wow! Okay. He's a lot tougher than what we expected. And actually, I think Macron sort of got his back up because Biden was pressing so hard. I can tell you the same thing about Middle Eastern leaders that I talked to. Nobody is saying that he's not cogent. And some people are suggesting that he, you know, a bit too tough in negotiations, that the United States throws their weight around a little bit too much.
Naturally, everyone else on the panel agreed.
"Let's begin with the fact that Joe Biden is 81 years old, and Donald Trump, by the way, will be 78 next week. So he's not much younger," panelist Willie Geist said. "So, yes, does he move a little slower and speak a little softer than he did 15 years ago when he was Vice President?"
Both Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed.
"As former Speaker McCarthy said in the piece, sure does. I think most 81-year-olds do or most people are different than they were 15 years ago," Geist said. "This does have the feeling of Trump acolytes laundering their attacks through a reputable, prestigious news organization, the Wall Street Journal."
While the panel thinks it's unfair to question Biden's mental fitness, they had no problem claiming that Trump's cognitive health should be called into question, Geist, for example, pointed to a recent Fox News interview as somehow proof he was mentally unfit. Co-panelist Mike Barnicle was asked about what the White House reaction to the piece is, and he chuckled and said "I can't say it on the air. You just can't say it on the air what the reaction is, actually."
I bet. Barnicle also tried to dismiss the WSJ's "classic hit piece" as merely reflecting Biden's personality quirks and claimed to be "embarrassed for the Wall Street Journal about this piece," insisting that anyone who has spent time with Biden knows he loves to talk.
Barnicle acknowledged Biden's age but argued the piece was biased and missed the mark:
This piece is so tilted, so off the mark, is he 81 years old? Yes. Is he a little slower in terms of his reactions to some things? Probably. That I don’t know, we don’t know. What I do know, Richard, and you’ve talked to people I’m sure who have been with him in national security meetings, I’ve been with people who have been with him in the situation room where he literally goes around the globe in the situation … and points out the weaknesses and the strengths of the United States’ relationships with every country that he’s talking about with no notes, with no notes.
Have fun watching the whole thing:
Morning Joe has a meltdown about WSJ piece on Biden’s mental decline pic.twitter.com/Y5bkZiSUXT
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 5, 2024
Let's point out the obvious here. The panelists essentially argue that what comes across as Biden being cognitively impaired is just a personality thing. When the polls show that large bipartisan majorities say that they think Biden is too old and cognitively impaired to be president, wouldn't he ditch the senile old man persona already?
These people defending Biden are a joke.
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