(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Biden White House is in a state of panic after the Wall Street Journal published a bombshell 3,000-word exposé suggesting that President Joe Biden is showing “signs of slipping” during meetings with congressional leaders.
The report will likely intensify widespread voter concerns that Biden, aged 81, is too old to govern the country effectively and that his once-eloquent speech, heralded during his time on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has deteriorated.
The Journal interviewed over 45 individuals “over several months” who provided alarming details about Biden’s mental acuity. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was the only source to offer on-the-record comments to the Journal.
“I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I’d go to his house,” McCarthy told the newspaper. “He’s not the same person.”
According to Biden’s allies, he has faced “good moments and bad ones.” The Journal reported, “Most of those who said Biden performed poorly were Republicans, but some Democrats said that he showed his age in several of the exchanges.”
Biden’s cognitive decline was reportedly most visible during negotiations over the debt ceiling. “His demeanor and command of the details seemed to shift from one day to the next,” the Journal wrote, citing lawmakers’ accounts of the meetings.
During a January meeting with congressional leaders regarding funding for Ukraine, Biden often closed his eyes “long that some in the room wondered whether he had tuned out.”
Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, attended the meeting and told the Journal, “These people who keep talking about what a dynamo he is behind closed doors — they need to get him out from behind closed doors, because I didn’t see it.”
The White House reportedly monitored some of the Journal’s interviews with Democrats.
“After the offices of several Democrats shared with the White House either a recording of an interview or details about what was asked, some of those lawmakers spoke to the Journal a second time and once again emphasized Biden’s strengths,” the newspaper wrote.
