Imagine your brain frying so bad that Dr. Anthony Fauci has to pinch-hit for you in the cognitive department.
Alas, this is where we are in Joe Biden’s presidency. Not to say the head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases isn’t a mentally spry man, but he’s 80 years old and I think we can agree the mental plasticity is beginning to go. It’s long gone for Biden — and it’s only becoming more noticeable the longer he stays in office.
Not that it wasn’t noticeable before, but the media chose not to discern it. Since the beginning of his campaign for the presidency, we’ve been pointing out here at The Western Journal that Joe Biden isn’t equal the immense task before him — and we’ll continue to do so even as the establishment tries to downplay his cognitive issues. You can help us in our fight by subscribing.
The latest absurd Biden-ism came as the president was delivering his COVID-19 briefing from the White House Thursday afternoon.
The sound bite most media pulled was where he said that the unvaccinated were “looking at a winter of severe illness and death.” Even this pull-quote came from a mangled bit of speech, though:
Biden:
“For unvaccinated: We are looking at a winter of severe illness and death, if you’re unvaccinated. For themselves, their family and the hospital they’ll soon overwhelm.” pic.twitter.com/XjP8zlIDbB
— Jewish Deplorable (@TrumpJew2) December 16, 2021
“For unvaccinated: We are looking at a winter of severe illness and death, if you’re unvaccinated,” Biden said. “For themselves, their family and the hospital they’ll soon overwhelm.”
This sounds like a bad bit of bad poetry: “If an unvaccinated man their clans doth helm / Themselves, their family and the hospital they’ll soon overwhelm.” If only this were the worst moment of the briefing.
No, that moment was reserved for when Biden tried to note 57 million Americans have gotten the booster. The emphasis there is on tried.
“Fifty-seven, excuse me, 570, excuse me … I don’t wanna read it, I’m not sure I got the right number,” Biden said.
“Fifty-seven million,” Fauci responded.
Biden: “57, excuse me, 570, excuse me… I don’t wanna read it, I’m not sure I got the right number”
Fauci: “57 million” pic.twitter.com/cy8YkqFKVW
— Jewish Deplorable (@TrumpJew2) December 16, 2021
Nothing to see here, folks. There’s apparently a reason why Biden has referred to Fauci as being the real president:
PRES. BIDEN: “I’ve seen more of Dr. Fauci than I have my wife…Who’s President? Fauci! But all kidding aside, I sincerely mean it.” pic.twitter.com/2fnXgH3kH2
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 2, 2021
This wasn’t even the only speech Biden gaffed his way through on Thursday, either. Consider the two times he mispronounced the name of Alwyn Cashe — the first black Medal of Honor recipient since 9/11, according to People Magazine — multiple times during the same ceremony.
He did it again pic.twitter.com/KluzzRKqDi
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) December 16, 2021
Nor is it the only time he’s just out-and-out spaced or given up trying to read something difficult. Here is last month, in the midst of signing four bills, deciding not to venture down the hazardous path of pronouncing their names:
“Alright, here we go. Amend title—eh, I’m not gonna read it all. I’ll just sign it.” pic.twitter.com/kfwOlIJMEF
— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) November 30, 2021
“‘Amend title — Well, I’m not going to read it all, I’ll just sign it,” Biden said.
For the record, the bills he didn’t read the names of were the “Hire Veterans Health Heroes Act of 2021,” the “Protecting Moms Who Served Act of 2021,” the “Colonel John M. McHugh Tuition Fairness for Survivors Act of 2021” and “A bill to require the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study on disparities associated with race and ethnicity with respect to certain benefits administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.”
Perhaps not the shortest names in the world, but nothing that presents a level of verbal difficulty in pronunciation like the “Abjuring Prestidigitation in Enthesopathy Pricing Act of 2021” or the “Nullifying Nattering Nabobs of Negativism Act of 2021.” (Note to the humor-challenged: Those are not, in fact, real bills, although I’d pay real money for someone in Congress to attach one of those names to an inconsequential piece of legislation just to hear Biden try to pronounce it.)
As for spacing, here’s Biden at a town hall in October, saying, “What am I doing here?” as he searched the ol’ memory banks for the name of Long Beach, California.
WATCH: Anderson Cooper has to help Joe Biden remember the city of Long Beach, California.
“What am I doing here?” pic.twitter.com/oySsWcupXn
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 22, 2021
CNN’s Anderson Cooper played the role of Dr. Fauci in that situation, helping the president charged with ending the supply-chain crisis remember the name of the critical port city which arguably represented one of the biggest logjams in the supply chain. “What am I doing here?” may indeed have been an apt question for President Biden to ask himself, albeit not in the context in which the president intended it.
We laugh, alas, because we’re thoroughly unsettled. Every four-to-eight years, we look back on the mental and physical toll the presidency has taken on the appearance and mental energy of the man who’s in office. The bags under the eyes, the greying hair, the sentences that trail off — it’s a difficult job and it happens to the best of them.
With Joe Biden, however, that was happening before he entered the Oval Office — as anyone who watched his infamous remark that parents should leave “the record player on at night” during the Democratic primary debates can attest to. Even by that low standard, the alarming rate of cognitive decline since Biden became a resident of 1600 Pennsylvania — combined with the fact he’s the leader of the most powerful country in the world at an inflection point in Earth’s history — has become not so much the elephant in the room as the agitated humpback whale in the Boeing 737 lavatory.
Biden says he plans to run in 2024. How much of this is bluffing to keep the spotlight off the “Succession”-esque fight between unpopular Vice President Kamala Harris and unready Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is anyone’s guess, but Biden might just be serious, even if he’s a high-mileage 79. If he is — and if he wins — heaven help us all.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
