Joe Biden’s decline: The inside story and the outside story

Published May 5, 2025 6:18pm ET



JOE BIDEN’S DECLINE: THE INSIDE STORY AND THE OUTSIDE STORY. We’ve gotten a new tidbit of information about efforts by the Biden White House and some in the press to cover up President Joe Biden’s age-related infirmity. It comes from a new book, 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, by reporters Tyler Pager, Josh Dawsey, and Isaac Arnsdorf of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, respectively. The authors report that “top White House aides debated having [Biden] undergo a cognitive test to prove his fitness for a second term but ultimately decided against the move,” according to a report on the book in the New York Times.

The revelation is the latest in a series of news nuggets about the 82-year-old Biden’s senescence, stories like White House aides putting tape on the floor so that Biden wouldn’t wander off course, that have been included in new books about the 2024 election. More is promised in yet another book to be published later this month. But the fact is, you already knew about Biden’s cognitive decline because you saw it with your own eyes.

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