On Tuesday, Joe Biden met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House in an attempt to smooth over what has been a rough relationship with the long-time American ally.
Unfortunately, Biden began to deteriorate rapidly during their joint presser in the Oval Office. As the press corps looked on, the US president’s head drooped down dramatically and his speaking became incoherent.
Biden begins by claiming that he brought Israelis and Palestinians together on a political level. On that front, I have no idea what he’s talking about. The relationship between the two sides is as bad as it has been since the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War. For its part, the Biden administration has done everything it can to alienate the Israelis despite continued acts of terrorism from the Palestinian territories. To say that Biden has brought the two sides together is just laughably false.
Regardless, that’s not the part of the clip that has everyone talking. After the US president made the aforementioned comment, he started to mumble as he stared at his lap, and while I’d like to think I’ve gotten good at “speaking Biden” over the years of covering his public appearances, I simply can’t translate what’s on that video.
It’s concerning, to say the least. You’ve got the representative for a close US ally sitting across from Biden and he can’t even make eye contact with the man, much less finish his statement in a way that could be understood. It’s as if his brain has to reboot before he can continue.
This isn’t the first time this has happened either. In 2022, while doing an interview with MSNBC, Biden suffered a similar lapse in which his head started to drop and he looked entranced.
Biden’s demeanor had changed by the end of his presser with the Israeli president. For lack of a better descriptor, things just got really weird.
Losing one’s train of thought and suddenly becoming tired is a common aspect of old age, and Biden is now 80 years old. That’s a reality that he can’t escape despite the assertions that he’s in good health. You can be in good health at that age and still be completely unqualified to be President of the United States. Even without speculating on whether he’s suffering from some form of dementia, Biden fits that mold perfectly.
There is no scenario I see where this man can actually participate in a real re-election campaign come 2024. It’s obvious his plan is to face Donald Trump and hope that negative partisanship is enough to push him over the finish line. Will that work without COVID as an excuse to stay off the campaign trail? I have my doubts. Of course, perhaps we’ll suffer another cataclysmic global event just in time to save him. I guess we’ll see.