Former President Biden’s cognitive abilities were noticeably in decline by the end of 2023. There are five people of which you probably haven’t heard. At least I didn’t because I don’t take particular interest in the aides of the president. However, as quoted in an interview with Joe Scarborough, the authors of a recent book about the Biden administration, Original Sin quoted the following people:
“The people in charge were [top Biden advisers] Mike Donilon, Steve Riccheti, Bruce Reed, Anthony Bernal, the first lady’s chief of staff, the first lady, and Annie Tomasini,” Thompson responded. “Those are the people that saw him the most and that had the most control over what he was doing and his day-to-day.” Five people who attend meetings to which you will not likely be invited. Five people who, on a regular basis, occupy rooms that you will likely never see. Five people who, according to mounting evidence, ran the executive branch of our government, as our president’s mental abilities declined. I voted in the election of 2020, and I didn’t see any of those names on the ballot. I don’t think I missed them.
There are several issues here. If there is a noticeable decline in the cognitive abilities of the president of the United States, and you are aware of said decline, do you have the responsibility to report said decline, or do you, as presidential advisor Rahm Emanuel stated, “Never let a crisis go to waste?” What one might find disturbing, is that the man elected to the office was no longer in the state of mind to perform the duties of the office. Do you devote your energies and direct your attention to the causes of your political party, or report the incompetence of an elected official?
Apparently, the policies of the Democrat party were more important than disclosing that the
president was incompetent. Such a decision would not seem difficult to me, but then, I am not invited to those meetings, nor have I ever seen the walls of those very private rooms where policies are devised and implemented.
The president is as public as they wish to be, some more, some less, than others. The presidential debate of June 28, 2024 revealed that President Biden was having trouble retaining his train of thought. President Biden also, apparently, thought that he was capable of handling the responsibilities of the presidency for another term, and a short time after the debate, he exited the presidential race, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris to run for the Democrat party. Many analysts state that had Biden declined to run from the beginning, Harris would have had a better chance, and keep in mind that at least several people were aware of his mental decline.
The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlines what is done when the president can no longer perform the responsibilities of the office. While this was not executed, perhaps it should have been. That’s water under the bridge, now, isn’t it? To become the president of the United States, you must be thirty-five. Perhaps we should add another amendment limiting how old you can be, a limit on the age of, perhaps, eighty years. Joe Biden had a political career spanning almost fifty years.
I genuinely feel sorry for him, wishing for another presidency. But the needs of our nation cannot be subordinated to the whims of a senior citizen. Nor can certain aides to the president decide that they will take the reins of the office and become, the de facto president. Had a major crisis occurred, we can only speculate as to what might have happened. As it is, we, as a nation, may consider our options as to what measures should be taken to ensure that our commander in chief is fully qualified and in charge of their senses; that may be the crisis for which we should take advantage, even as it has now passed.
