Amid all the turbulence of the last couple of weeks, there is now at least one thing we can be sure of: Joe Biden, who is still the ostensible president of the United States, is still alive. After allegedly being diagnosed with COVID, dropping out of the race in a message on X that raised as many questions as it answered, and dropping out of sight other than a strange phone call to a Kamala Harris rally on Monday, Joe Biden finally reappeared on Tuesday afternoon, looking as hale and hearty as ever, that is, not at all.
Biden was caught on video emerging feebly from the presidential limousine, carrying, but not wearing, a COVID mask, as if to remind the world of the official story of why he has been out of sight for so long. He shuffles haltingly over to Air Force One, turning to face the reporters shouting questions at him about his health and what he thinks of Kamala Harris’ chances of beating Donald Trump. All Old Joe says, however, is “What?” as if he can’t hear the questions over the roar of the jet engines.
He's alive!pic.twitter.com/kSczi28vlv
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 23, 2024
In another video, a reporter asks Biden why he dropped out of the race. Although his confused reaction has been widely interpreted as another sign of his cognitive decline, it appears, once again, that he simply cannot hear the question over all the airplane noise.
REPORTER: "Why did you drop out?"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 23, 2024
BIDEN: *confused*
IT WAS A COUP! pic.twitter.com/XDMdcdSTPk
This was the anticlimactic way that the man who used to be called the leader of the free world reappeared after nearly a week out of the public eye. In the interim, events have been moving quickly. Old Joe retired to his taxpayer-funded walled Delaware beach home, vowing to stay in the race and end the menace of the Bad Orange Man. He emerged a has-been, already forgotten by the political and media elites in their haste to anoint the Democrats’ new nominee as the ideal candidate—the nominee that leftists have been searching for but didn’t know they already had.
And so what next for the cast-aside corruptocrat? Biden’s X wonk announced on his account Tuesday morning: “Tomorrow evening at 8 PM ET, I will address the nation from the Oval Office on what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people.” The world will once again be watching Biden for signs of his cognitive abilities or lack thereof, and even though the Democrats have deep-sixed Biden as a candidate, his dementia is still a live issue.
The Democrats have placed themselves in a lose-lose situation. If Biden staggers and stumbles through his remarks and demonstrates yet again that his cognitive decline is getting markedly worse, the question of why he is still serving as president until Jan. 20, 2025, will become urgent. If, on the other hand and against all odds, Biden delivers his remarks flawlessly or even something close to that, the focus will be on why the Democrats, the self-appointed guardians of “our democracy,” chose to thwart the will of their own voters and throw Old Joe under the bus because they had started to doubt that he could beat Trump.
Related: Where's Joe? What's Going On? Is Any of This Really Happening?
Either way, Democrat strategists have a very good chance of regretting that they allowed Biden to speak to the American people on Wednesday evening. They may regret setting up a meeting between Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu that they've set up for Thursday. They’ve lied to the American people for so very long about so very many things, and now they’re entangled in the web of their own lies with no obvious way to escape. At this point, however, the die is cast. They’re stuck with Kamala, and as she shows her own abject inability to perform the duties of the office she is seeking, party top dogs may end up longing for the good old days when they were able to operate through Old Joe as their senescent figurehead, while feeding the New York Times, CNN, and the rest howlers about how sharp Biden was in private meetings and how signs of his incapacity were “conspiracy theories.”
Yes, for the left, those were the good old days. Kamala Harris is not likely to be as compliant, or as easy to sell to the American people as competent. The left’s whole scheme is coming apart every which way, and yes, it’s a glorious time to be alive.
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