President Joe Biden suffered a concerning flub during a campaign event where he repeated a story nearly word-for-word just minutes apart.
During a campaign event, Biden spoke about his life after leaving office in 2017 and how he was enjoying it until, “Along came, in August of 2017, Charlottesville, Virginia.”
“You remember those folks walking out of the fields literally carrying torches, with Nazi swastikas, holding them forward, singing the same vicious, anti-Semitic bile — the same exact bile — bile that was sung in — in Germany in the early ‘30s. And a young woman was killed. A young woman was killed,” the president said.
He added, “There was a consequential piece of business going on. And the former guy was asked, ‘What do you think would happen?’ He was the sitting president. And he said, ‘I thought there were some very fine people on both sides.’”
After discussing the process of deciding to run for president, Biden said again, “You know, you may remember that, you know, those folks from Charlottesville, as they came out of the fields and carrying those swastikas, and remember the ones with the torches and the Ku — accompanied by the Ku Klux Klan. And in addition to that, they had — there were white supremacists. Anyway, they were making the big case about how terrible this was. And a young woman was killed in the process.”
The incident was recorded in the White House pool report and in the official transcript of the event.
It is pretty hard to explain that away. Did he forget that he told the story?
As The New York Post notes, “According to medical experts, repeating sentences, phrases and even entire stories — while common in the elderly — may be an early sign of dementia or even an early warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Now that’s not an attempt to try to diagnose Biden or suggest he has dementia. But this incident, like him asking where a congresswoman who died was, is concerning, to say the least.
Mercifully for Biden and his staff — and frankly the country — there has not been a video of the moment that has gone viral.
But this incident must be a doomsday scenario for Democrats. Even if the president obtains a clean bill of health from a doctor, it would be hard to push back against concerns he is not fit for the job if there was a video of him doing this.
Just look at what happened with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the concerns and calls for him to resign after videos showed him freezing up — even just once.
At this point, with the way our politics is, it is hard to believe there is any medical expert who would be able to garner enough respect and trust that even if he or she examined Biden and said he is fine, the public would believe them.
Biden allies can brush off him fumbling his speeches, falling off a bike, tripping on a stage, or declaring that he’s going to bed in the middle of a press conference.
Yet, several polls have found Americans think Biden is too old for the job. And if there was video of him repeating himself in such a manner as he did on Wednesday, it would be hard to see how he would recover from that politically.
Republicans — and perhaps some Democrats — would be calling for the 25th Amendment to be invoked. Meanwhile, concern about his age leading up to the 2024 election would skyrocket. Perhaps not even the fear and loathing around a potential second term for former President Donald Trump would be enough to save him.
