“The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin asked former President Joe Biden Thursday about the allegations he was in cognitive decline during his presidency — Biden denied the reports and rambled randomly before former first lady Jill Biden stepped in to defend him.
Since Biden’s disastrous June debate against President Donald Trump, reports have surfaced alleging the former president was cognitively diminished. Griffin specifically asked Biden whether the sources for books that allege “there was a dramatic decline” in his mental acuity during the last year of his term “are wrong.”
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“They are wrong. There’s nothing to sustain that. Number one. Number two, you know, think of what we were left with. We were left with a circumstance where we had an insurrection when I started — not since the Civil War. We had a circumstance where we were in a position that we — well, the pandemic, because of the incompetence of the last outfit and up over a million people dying, a million people dying,” Biden said. “And we were also in a situation where we found ourselves unable to deal with a lot of just basic issues, and which I won’t go into in the interest of time. And so we went to work and we got it done and, you know, one of the things that — well … I’m talking too long.”
After Biden trailed off, his wife took over to counter the allegations.
“Alyssa, you know, one of the things I think is that the people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us. And they didn’t see how hard Joe worked every single day,” the former first lady said. “I mean, he’d get up. He’d put in a full day, and then at night he would — I’d be in bed, you know, reading my book and he was still on the phone, reading his briefings, working with staff. I mean, it was nonstop.”
“The White House — being president is not like a job. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a life that you live. You live it 24 hours a day,” she continued. “That phone can ring at 11:00 at night or 2:00 in the morning. It’s constant. You never leave it. And Joe worked really hard. I think he was a great president and if you look at things today, give me Joe Biden any time.”
After Biden withdrew from the presidential race on July 21, 2024, he held few public events, having none scheduled in 43 of the first 75 days following his exit, according to an Axios analysis. White House aides and close Biden allies told the outlet that they thought the president had been aging faster due to the stress of his position and his son’s legal battles.
Griffin followed up by asking about prominent Democrats’ worries about his mental acuity.
“I understand the concern. I really do. But the point of the matter is that I would offer specific evidence if we had time, exactly what I got done when I was supposedly lost my cognitive capability and, secondly, what we did after we got out of the race,” Biden said. “I said when I got out of the race, I was still going to be president. I think I did a pretty damn good job in the last six months.”
Biden endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris after he dropped out. President Donald Trump decisively defeated Harris in November, securing all seven swing states and the popular vote.
The former president also explained on “The View” Thursday that he “wasn’t surprised” by the election result in part because of sexism.
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