So obvious is former Vice President Joe Biden’s mental decline that even some liberals are admitting that it’s real. Yet they still maintain that it’s no reason not to vote for him.
That’s the argument New York Times columnist Frank Bruni attempted to make Sunday. “There have been moments aplenty when Biden’s stumbles have made me wince — particularly a doozy from a few days ago, when he seemingly confused lost jobs with lost lives and upped the COVID-19 death toll to ‘millions of people,’” he wrote. “But Biden’s bumbling isn’t the defining issue, not even close, and we shouldn’t let Trump use it.”
It’s unclear whom Bruni meant by “we.” Was he referring to other Democrats who are desperate to unseat President Trump? Or is he referring to the media, which have never once hesitated to question whether Trump wasn’t playing with a full deck?
They loved that. Recall when Michael Wolff was heralded by the press for claiming in his book that Trump doesn’t seem to recognize his own friends anymore? After Wolff took us for that ride, reports on administration officials concerned for Trump’s mental fitness popped up almost daily.
And recall that the people who believed that those claims were of utmost importance were the same ones who found it obscene that Trump in the 2016 campaign doubted the very questionable state of Hillary Clinton’s physical health after private footage caught her flopping in public like a rag doll.
Liberal columnist Ruth Marcus, emotionally affronted by Trump’s attacks, said at the time they have “no basis in reality, and no place in a presidential campaign.”
Journalist John Heilemann said of Trump, “If you don’t have a medical degree, shut up.”
Now, we are back to that mode because Biden is a Democrat. We need to make excuses for Biden the candidate, as he tells weird, rambling stories, like the one about letting kids touch his leg hairs at the swimming pool. During the primary debates, he ran from every opportunity to answer easy questions.
Bruni acknowledged it’s perfectly plausible that Biden “has lost a few steps” but countered that “at least Biden’s not poison.” This isn’t terribly unlike the op-ed printed in the New York Times earlier this month by Linda Hirshman, who said that even though she believed Biden had sexually assaulted a woman, voting for him would be “worth it.”
It’s truly breathtaking. Scrutiny of Biden’s mental stability is not just fair game — it is the central question of his campaign. Now, if only we could get some smart reporters to ask him about it.
