In the wake of President Joe Biden’s damaging debate performance last week, a reporter on Tuesday asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if he has Alzheimer’s or dementia.
The reporter added, “it’s a yes or no question.”
“It’s a no,” Jean-Pierre replied, “and I hope you’re asking the other guy that same exact question.”
The media has been focusing on Biden’s mental health, while ignoring or dismissing what some say are legitimate concerns about Donald Trump’s mental health.
“A weak Joe Biden self-destructed in front of the whole world,” Thursday night at the presidential debate, BBC News reported at the time, “while an aggressive Donald Trump told lies and mangled his sentences in a presidential debate that was like a reality show, according to international media.”
On Tuesday, The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg posed some very direct questions at the press briefing (video below).
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“How are Americans supposed to get the sense that the President is fully engaged and capable and thinking off the cuff when he’s reading from prepared remarks so often, and why can’t he just come down here? The briefing room’s 30 seconds away. Why can’t he come down here and assure us and the American people that he’s okay?”
Feinberg had claimed “all” of President Biden’s recent events had been scripted and in front of teleprompters.
“First of all, it wasn’t all it wasn’t ‘all,’ it was when he was speaking in front of the audience, but it wasn’t ‘all,’ ” Jean-Pierre responded.
“When you think about the tarmac,” she continued. “When you think about, when you think about engaging in the Waffle House, when you think about engaging at the watch party, and doing a very long rope line. And when he was at the tarmac was the middle of the night, literally two o’clock at night. We all wanted to go to bed but the President was certainly very focused and zeroed in on the American people who were out there wanting to cheering him on and wanting to see him and take selfies and get a hug from this President. That’s what you saw.”
The New York Times in an article on Tuesday focused on Biden’s “lapses,” reported: “In the 23 days leading up to the debate against former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Biden jetted across the Atlantic Ocean twice for meetings with foreign leaders and then flew from Italy to California for a splashy fund-raiser, maintaining a grueling pace that exhausted even much younger aides.”
“Mr. Trump, 78, has also shown signs of slipping over the years since he was first elected to the White House. He often confuses names and details and makes statements that are incoherent. He maintains a lighter public schedule than Mr. Biden, does not exercise and repeatedly appeared to fall asleep in the middle of his recent hush money trial. His campaign has released only a three-paragraph health summary. Voters have expressed concern about his age as well, but not to the same degree as Mr. Biden’s,” The Times also reported.
“And I don’t know if you missed this, but I also share that he has done more than 40 interviews this year alone, and we’re going to continue that, he’s going to do an interview with ABC George Stephanopoulos this week,” the press secretary added. “Those were unscripted, those were unscripted. He’s done more than 500 gaggles. Those are unscripted. And we want to continue to do that. We do, we want to continue to do that. There’s going to be a press conference next week, a NATO, a ‘Big Boy’ press conference, as Justin has reminded us next week, and so that’s going to be important as well.”
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“I think, given what happened on Thursday, given the reporting in The New York Times and other outlets about the President’s more frequent lapses,” Feinberg said, “all of us saw what happened on Thursday where he simply could not form coherent answers to many or some, if you will, of the questions. And here to lapse into nonsensical answers, at the end, ‘we beat Medicare,’ for instance.”
“I’m gonna ask something delicate, and you may not like it. The President may not like to hear it if he’s watching but I think the American people need to get a yes or no answer on this: Does President Biden at 81 years old, have Alzheimer’s, any form of dementia or degenerative illness that can cause these sorts of lapses? And it’s a yes or no question, and if you don’t know why don’t you as one of his senior staff members, know the answer?”
“I have an answer for you. Are you ready for it? It’s a no, and I hope you’re asking the other guy that same exact question.”
Watch below or at this link.
Here’s my exchange with @PressSec in which I ask her why @POTUS can’t come to the briefing room to put concerns about his ability to rest.
I also ask if he has Alzheimer’s, dementia or another degenerative condition. She said he does not. pic.twitter.com/UCSsZKwFvQ
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) July 2, 2024
This article has been updated to include reporting from The New York Times