Here’s the Part of the WSJ Piece on the Death of Biden’s Presidency That Makes You Ask Who’s in Charge

Matt Vespa | July 24, 2024 7:00 AM

The Wall Street Journal is vindicated. They got raked over the coals for their lengthy piece about members of Congress noticing the mental decline of Joe Biden. That piece dropped in June, weeks before the president suffered an election-killing blow during his debate with Donald Trump. Whatever veneer of mental vibrancy that was manufactured by the White House got obliterated, with the media also being branded, and rightly so, to avoid reporting on such a story out of fear of helping Trump or losing access. With everyone laser-focused on Biden’s mental acuity, there was no way to spin some of the flubs that legacy media often dismissed. 

The Journal noted that he exhibited just enough sharpness to quell concerns from allies and officials, keeping Biden somewhat alive behind closed doors. That quickly dissipated as his presidency progressed. Even foreign officials noticed the decline, with some becoming disturbed that the leader of the free world was presenting with signs of age they had seen in their parents. The Wall Street Journal charts the long and winding road to the Biden White House’s demise. It’s chock full of deflections, pivots, and spin from Biden’s communications team and officials who, for some reason, are still defending this man’s mental health. Still, this passage about Pelosi cleaning up Biden’s mess when he was trying to pass the infrastructure bill is jarring and sets up for quite the political dirge: 

President Biden had just finished trying to persuade a group of congressional Democrats to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure bill when Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker, took the microphone. 

In 30 minutes of remarks on Capitol Hill, Biden had spoken disjointedly and failed to make a concrete ask of lawmakers, according to Democrats in the room. After he left, a visibly frustrated Pelosi told the group she would articulate what Biden had been trying to say, one lawmaker said. 

“It was the first time I remember people pretty jarred by what they had seen,” recalled Rep. Dean Phillips (D., Minn.), who would go on to mount an unsuccessful primary challenge against the president.

That was October 2021. That month was the last time Biden met with the House Democratic caucus on the Hill regarding legislation.

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The man who prides himself on foreign policy wilted like a flower:

Many Democratic lawmakers said they were stunned by Biden’s condition in the debate in part because their contact with him has been so limited over the past three years… 

Senior officials at cabinet agencies have privately complained for years that they didn’t have enough contact with the president and his senior team, who centralized power in the White House and directed much of the administration’s policy activity. 

In spring 2022, some European officials began to notice that something might be amiss. Biden was chairing an online video call on Ukraine with the G-7 leaders, a tightly scheduled discussion where Biden called on one leader at a time to give a statement. Sitting in the Oval Office, Biden at one point forgot to unmute his mic, then lost his train of thought and began mumbling, according to an official on the call. He appeared to lose the order of which leader should speak next, and then tried to end the call without calling on Macron. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau intervened to remind him, and Macron was given his turn.

Top allies of the president, meanwhile, were encouraging the president to “own” his age and turn it into an asset. Movie mogul and campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg pointed to other icons born in the 1940s and still working today, such as Harrison Ford. 

In July 2023, the White House’s management of Biden’s schedule drew the attention of European officials during a five-day swing that included a NATO summit in Lithuania and a Nordic summit in Finland. Some of Biden’s private meetings and other elements of his schedule were removed or their length was reduced, two European diplomats said, prompting NATO diplomats to talk among themselves about how Biden’s exposure was closely managed by his team. Biden’s team told Nordic officials and diplomats that this was a tiring trans-Atlantic trip and the president was old, said one of the European diplomats. 

“Now, looking back, it was noticeable last year,” the diplomat said. 

Sullivan, the national security adviser, said on Sunday: “Give me a break,” pointing to Biden’s announcement of bilateral security agreements for Ukraine at the summit. 

By the end of 2023, murmurs among Democrats about Biden’s condition had begun to grow. Donors who had met with Biden out West over the summer said the president appeared confused and disoriented at times. At a fundraiser in the fall, Biden told the same anecdote twice. At a White House Christmas party, a number of lawmakers who attended came away concerned about what they saw as a deterioration in Biden’s health. 

In March, Biden assuaged concerns about his age when he delivered to Congress a feisty, hour-and-seven-minute State of the Union address, where he went off script to parry Republican criticism of his agenda. Mingling on the floor following his speech, Democrats congratulated Biden. “Nobody’s going to talk about cognitive impairment now,” New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler crowed. 

Days later, European officials met with Biden at the White House for a late afternoon discussion focused on NATO security concerns and the Ukraine war. The president seemed reasonably sharp for the first half of the meeting, according to a person present. 

But as the conversation wore on, the president began to flag noticeably, speaking slowly and at times in a way that was difficult to hear. Officials who had met him in previous years noted a sharp deterioration. The officials left the meeting saddened, feeling the president reminded some of their own parents as they aged, the person said. 

The media tour that followed this disastrous debate, one set up to rehabilitate Biden, was another train wreck, where ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, who first interviewed the president during this tour that included BET and NBC News, was caught saying he didn’t think Biden could serve another term. All three interviews were disasters, with the BET one notable for Biden forgetting Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s name, the first black man to run the Pentagon. The president referred to him as “the black man.” Then, at fundraisers, like the one in East Hampton, Biden took questions but brought up senior adviser Mike Donilon to add the supplemental concerning donor questions, which attendees found bizarre.

The article further charts how things became dire on all campaign fronts when the dam finally broke following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention. There was no money, and the pipelines were running dry. Donors were through with Biden to the point where down-ballot races were now at risk of being starved of funds. One thing that threw people through a loop within this circle was Biden’s re-election announcement, where it had been assumed that he was a “transition” president, serving one term as a bookmark for the next generation of leaders. The Democrats’ unexpected showing in the 2022 midterms changed the president’s tune. And a new plan was hatched, though one that involved gambling on a man who was severely degraded physically and mentally. The Los Angeles fundraiser he had with Obama reportedly shook the former president to his core, seeing how his ex-vice president had aged.

With the money running out, no new donors, a Hill revolt, and the base now vocally urging him to quit, Biden threw in the towel on July 21. But who is running the country? 

Around the time Biden exited the 2024 race, he was collapsing on all fronts. Virginia, which hadn’t been a battleground state since 2004, was now within striking distance of Trump. Biden never led Trump in any polls, trailing the former president in all the crucial swing states. There is no pathway to 270 and no way to pay for it. The president quit, a historic action from a man who never had what it took to be president