Biden Melts Down During Presser: Simple Question on Midterms Triggers Babble-Fest for 5 Straight Minutes
Cognitive decline mixed with a lifetime of politico-speak and the lies that go with it make for a strange brew. It can eclipse reality when ingested. Even then, it’s only a matter of time before reality drips back in.
Joe Biden has apparently taken a long quaff of that brew. In a long-anticipated press conference on Jan. 19, Biden rambled on for almost two hours and, at times, appeared confused. He wasn’t the only one. Some of his answers appeared to have nothing to do with the question asked. One of those answers was completely baffling; it was telling, as well.
A reporter asked Biden if he thought Republicans would weaponize the fact that some schools are still shut down to help them win over suburban voters. The reporter acknowledged that most schools are, in fact open, but that wasn’t the point. The reporter wanted to know whether or not Biden thought the opposition would use the fact as leverage in the upcoming election.
Biden, realizing time was short, had prefaced his answer with, “If you ask me easy questions, I’ll give you quick answers.”
OK. Whether or not Republicans will use education issues to appeal to suburban voters seems like a pretty easy question, right? An appropriate response might have been, “Of course they will! They’ll grasp at anything. But it won’t work. Most schools are open. Next question.”
What we got was anything but appropriate. Instead, Biden went on a rant that lasted five minutes and bounced around like a bowling ball on board a sinking Titanic.
The initial response started out as one might expect, “I think it could be” — a typical politico non-response. And then the boat hit the iceberg.
In the long pause that followed the initial non-response, maybe it dawned on Biden that his answer wasn’t really an answer and it confused him. After all, the “I think it could,” could have been, “I don’t think it would” and said just as much. This would be a viable assumption because, to come out of the pause, Biden said, “Look, maybe I’m kidding myself.”
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Maybe Biden was experiencing a moment of clarity. I have known drug addicts and alcoholics to experience them. It’s not a stretch to think those in cognitive decline might as well.
Biden continued by saying — I have to paraphrase, as it was a bit hard to follow — that voters, as time goes on, are becoming “much more informed” concerning the motives of some politicians and parties. As such, voters might not fall prey to “some of the outlandish things that have been said and continue to be said.”
Presuming Biden still had education in mind — the reporter’s question was about schools — I sat on the edge of my seat. Could it be true? Was Biden on the verge of debunking Critical Race Theory and Merrick Garland, Attorney General of the United States, targeting parents who oppose teaching hate-based racism to their children as domestic terrorists? Did it dawn on him that gender theory is madness and he’d been going along with it for too long?
It was too good to be true, and I knew it even as I thought it. Still, for those few seconds, maybe even Biden was having a moment of clarity as well. One is still allowed to dream.
Then my dream of clarity at the highest level of government faded to black. Biden stumbled through a confused theory concerning polls and mass media, none of it in any way relating to the reporter’s initial question. He was that far afield, truly gone fishing.
Biden’s point about saying outlandish things came home to roost when he inexplicably turned to the subject of political polling. “You know, every — every president, not necessarily in the first 12 months, but every president in the first couple of years — most every president, excuse me, of the last presidents — at least four of them — have had polling numbers that are 44 percent favorable,” Biden said.
Huh?
“So, it’s this idea that — but you all — not you all — but now it is,” Biden continued, “Well, Biden is at — one poll showed him at 33 percent. The average is 44 — 44, 45 percent. One polled him at 49 percent.” I wasn’t sure if Biden was talking about himself in the third person or putting words in an imaginary reporter’s mouth. Whatever the case, it was in no way tethered to the question that prompted the ramble or to the subject he was talking about just seconds before.
From political polls, Biden jumped to media coverage. Granted, there was some connection to polls here if you worked at it, but not a thread to attach it to the reporter’s original question about schools. He began wrapping up this segment of his rambling response to the reporter’s straightforward question with, “Again, I’m no expert in any of this. But the fact is, I think you have to acknowledge that what gets covered now is necessarily a little bit different than what gets covered in the past.”
True. But I’d be lying if I said I’d never thought about it before.
I often wonder what my grandparents must think of all this. They watched Walter Cronkite and read the newspapers. That’s it. A simpler time. Maybe Joe was reminiscing — not about his grandparents, but about when he started in politics almost 50 years ago. A simpler time. I don’t know. I’m not sure he did, either.
Anyway, thanks for pointing out the obvious, Joe.
Earlier in the news conference, when asked by a reporter what Biden thought gave rise to all the speculation about his cognitive fitness, Biden responded with, “I have no idea.” That was it.
And that says it all.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
