Biden's staggering remark about disaster-struck Americans confirms he's out to lunch



Hurricane Helene has wrought havoc, killing at least 215 Americans and leaving thousands homeless. Entire communities, such as Chimney Rock, North Carolina, are in ruins. Many citizens remain stranded, powerless, and in desperate need of supplies.

When reading speeches in some of the affected states this week, President Joe Biden signaled an understanding of the disaster's impact — noting in Raleigh, for instance, the "historic proportions" of the damages. However, a passing encounter with the press upon his return to the White House Thursday revealed the Democratic president has at best a sporadic grasp on the reality of the situation.

"What do the states in the storm zone need, Mr. President?" a reporter asked Biden.

"Sorry?" responded the 81-year-old president, who had just finished off celebrating former Jan. 6 committee member Liz Cheney's supposed "physical courage" in endorsing Kamala Harris.

"What do the the states in the storm zones — what do they need after what you saw today?" said the reporter.

"Oh, in the storm zone? I'm wondering which storm you're talking about," said Biden. "They've got everything they need. They're very happy across the board."

Biden's apparent confusion regarding "which storm" was at issue as well as his characterization of those affected by Hurricane Helene as "happy" prompted concerns and outrage.

'My grief today is unfathomable.'

One user responding to the video on X noted, "This makes my blood boil! Our families are suffering. The death toll is going to be shocking. The missing need to be found!!!!"

"Oh, everyone impacted by Helene are happy, across the board. Oh. Good to know. Getting everything they need. Oh. Good to know," wrote another user, ostensibly in disbelief over Biden's remarks.

While Americans have showcased compassion, courage, and resilience throughout this ordeal, it's clear that happiness is far from ubiquitous.

A user on X who goes by A.P. Hill Legacy Foundation shared his firsthand account of challenges on the ground in North Carolina, noting that people "have no driveways, no power[,] no food. People are dying. Grown men crying and hugging me for giving them $100."

'Harris says Joe Biden is completely fit to be president.'

"People were crying telling me that they watched a women [sic] and her 3 children be washed away in the flood and they cried the entire night because they couldn't help them," said the X user. "Another man told me that his son is a paramedic and one of the bodies he found was his best friend. I hugged them and cried."

Meghan Drye of Asheville, North Carolina, made clear to Fox Weather earlier this week that she was anything but happy, having just lost her parents and her 7-year-old son Micah to the storm.

"My grief today is unfathomable," said Drye, emphasizing she's been sustained since then only by prayer. "I'm sorrowful. You know, I feel broken."

The tearful mother added while in the embrace of her weeping sister, "I'm so proud of my son because in his last moments he wasn't screaming for me. He was screaming, 'Jesus. Jesus save me. Jesus, I hear you. Jesus, I'm calling upon you.' In his wildest dreams and everything that he wanted to be was a superhero, and that was his goal in life. And instead, he's my hero because he reached for something past flesh, past human, past anything that even grown adults, I think, would reach for. My son called out to the one God Almighty. And I think at that moment, he was rescued."

Critics seized upon Biden's confusion as more evidence that Kamala Harris hid disqualifying decrepitude from the American public.

The Virginia GOP wrote, "Remember: Kamala Harris says Joe Biden is completely fit to be president. She is either a liar or hopelessly oblivious. Either one is disqualifying."

The Mississippi GOP tweeted, "This is what Kamala Harris & the media covered up."

The Trump campaign narrowed the blame down further, writing, "THIS is what Kamala covered up."

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Kamala Harris has 'no regrets' over gaslighting the American people about Biden's decrepitude



Vice President Kamala Harris sat down this week to field softball questions from a friendly liberal network after spending several weeks avoiding the fourth estate.

In her interview Thursday with CNN's Dana Bash, Harris was afforded an opportunity to account for her mischaracterization of President Joe Biden's competency when it still benefited her to do so.

Rather than admit fault, Harris doubled down and emphasized that she has no regrets.

"You were a very staunch defender of President Biden's capacity to serve another four years right after the debate," said Bash. "You insisted that President Biden is 'extraordinarily strong.'"

After Biden's disastrous debate with President Donald Trump on June 27, Harris told CNN host Anderson Cooper, "Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish. And what became very clear through the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people. On substance, on policy, on performance, Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong."

When Cooper gently pushed back, highlighting anxiety among congressional Democrats over Biden's performance, Harris responded, "People can debate on style points, but ultimately this election and who is the president of the United States has to be about substance. And the contrast is clear."

Bash asked Harris on Thursday, "Given where we are now, do you have any regrets about what you told the American people?"

"No. Not at all," said Harris. "I have served with President Biden for almost four years now, and I'll tell you: It's one of the greatest honors of my career. Truly."

'Joe Biden is very much alive.'

"He is so smart and loyal to the American people," continued Harris. "I have spent hours upon hours with him, be it in the Oval Office or the Situation Room. He has the intelligence, the commitment, and the judgment, and disposition that I think the American people rightly deserve in their president."

CNN panelists later spun Harris' long-standing mischaracterization of Biden's abilities as the result of "loyalty" and "grace."

The Trump campaign, on the other hand, said of Harris' admitted lack of remorse: "She lied to the American people as she perpetuated a massive, wide-reaching fraud — until it was no longer tenable."

Harris' post-debate spin earlier this summer was hardly the first time she tried to firm up public confidence in Biden's abilities.

He gave critics and allies alike cause to worry in recent years with his evident difficulty completing sentences; heavy reliance on cue cards; struggles to stay upright; repetition of the same debunked anecdote nearly word for word, in short succession; confusion of the living for the dead, his sister for his wife, and the names of disparate nations; apparent need to spend roughly 40% of his presidency out of office; identification as a proud black woman; and his apparent need for former President Barack Obama as an escort.

When asked in September 2023 whether Biden was too old to run again, Harris told reporters, "Joe Biden is going to be just fine," reported Reuters.

"Joe Biden is going to be fine. Let me tell you something: I work with Joe Biden every day," added Harris.

Harris was asked in an October 2023 "60 Minutes" interview what would happen in the event that something should "befall President Biden, and he is not able to run." Harris answered, "Joe Biden is very much alive and running for election."

In February, Harris condemned special counsel Robert Hur's report about Biden's handling of sensitive classified information, which suggested that the Democratic president had a "poor memory" and was possibly too senile to charge. She called the report "gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate."

Harris told reporters that contrary to Hur's characterization, Biden was capable — "in front of and on top of it all."

"The way that the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated," added Harris.

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Sen. Mike Lee reveals the brutal term his Democratic colleagues are using for the Biden decrepitude saga



Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) provided "Blaze News Tonight" Thursday with some damning insights into the state of play in Washington, D.C., and into how his Democratic peers are handling President Joe Biden's decrepitude and political collapse. Lee indicated the situation across the aisle has devolved into a truly pitiable state.

Biden has provided ample evidence in recent years that he is not immune to the ravages of time. The 81-year-old Democrat has manifested various signs of cognitive decline in public — confusing countries and family members; speaking to the dead; falling; repeating himself; slurring his words; forgetting critical life events; and relying upon large-printed instructions to execute basic tasks.

As recently as last month, Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media were still dutifully painting Biden as mentally fit and competent, deriding critics as conspiracy theorists, partisans, and cranks, and even suggesting that raw footage evidencing Biden's decline were "deepfakes."

However, Biden's presidential debate with President Donald Trump forced a paradigm shift in the mainstream — or at the very least left the American public asking enough questions that the political establishment had to begin seriously considering answers. Biden has not made his defense any easier in recent days by mistaking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Russian President Vladimir Putin at Thursday's NATO press conference, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as "Vice President Trump," or relying upon Jill Biden and former President Barack Obama to lead him around.

When pressed by "Blaze News Tonight" co-host Jill Savage about what his Democratic colleagues were saying about Joe Biden, Lee said, "They are referring behind closed doors to this situation and to conversations that they've apparently had to have as a conference within the last hour or two as the 'Weekend at Bernie's' chat."

'A whole lot of them and a whole lot of people in the media should not pretend to be surprised here.'

In the 1989 comedy movie "Weekend at Bernie's," a pair of lowly insurance company employees are invited to their CEO's beach home under false pretenses. Rather than a warm reception, they are greeted instead by the cold, dead body of their boss, Bernie Lomax. For fear of being tied to Bernie Lomax's demise and desiring to live it up in the beach house at the dead man's expense, the duo do their best to make it seem as though Lomax is still alive, manipulating and lugging around his body. The deception is made easier by the fact that many others are blinded by their own desires to similarly exploit the dead man's affluence and amenities.

"This is the reality in which they're swimming," said Lee. "I don't envy them. And yet we do have to remember that — I don't want to say all of them — but a whole lot of them and a whole lot of people in the media should not pretend to be surprised here."

"I think most of us, even those of us who are not Democrats, have seen this for a long time," continued the senator from Utah. "We've seen the president of the United States shaking hands with people who are not there or at least we can't see them. We've seen him getting lost between the helicopter and the residence at the White House. We've seen all sorts of things that don't make sense."

'They're looking for an off-ramp.'

Lee emphasized that there have long been far too many signs of Biden's decline for Democrats now to convincingly express shock.

"I think they have finally started to accept the fact that they've pushed it so far they can't take it any further," said Lee. "They're looking for an off-ramp. What I don't know is where it's going to go and whether that off-ramp is going to be any better or any worse for their chances."

Even if Biden ultimately caves to the demands of Democratic donors and lawmakers to exit the race, his most-discussed potential replacement appears similarly fated to lose.

A YouGov poll conducted days after the Trump-Biden debate suggested that two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents would approve of Kamala Harris becoming the presidential nominee. However, a post-debate Reuters/Ipsos poll indicated that Harris, whose approval rating is south of 38% and disapproval rating sits around 50%, still trailed Trump by one percentage point. Five Thirty Eight indicated that when factoring in economic and political issues, Biden still stands a better chance against Trump in terms of picking up swing states and winning the Electoral College than Harris by a 17-point margin.

While the broader conversation about Biden has largely dealt with the man himself, Lee steered it back to the issues with his policies.

"Bottom line is all of this ultimately focuses on the fact that Joe Biden's policies have been an unmitigated disaster. They have inflicted torture on the American people. They have made everything more expensive. The average family has to shell out at a minimum $1,300 a month every single month just to live, just to buy groceries and gas, and to pay for their housing," said Lee. "That's not fair, but this is the predictable, foreseeable, and in fact foreseen result of his failed policies."

"So no matter where they run, they cannot hide from the failed progressive Democrat policies that have put us in this position," added Lee. "And that's really what's on trial, more than Joe Biden's dementia."

— (@)

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Biden identifies as proud black woman in botched effort to reassure voters of his competence



The Democratic Party is in panic mode over the near-universal acknowledgment of President Joe Biden's decrepitude. Internal Democratic polling recently indicated that Biden is set for a humiliating defeat in November following his June debate performance. House and Senate candidates fear he may drag them down as well.

Biden was afforded an opportunity in an interview that aired Thursday on the black Philadelphia radio station 96.1FM to reassure his allies of his competence. It did not go well.

In his rambling interview with host Andrew Lawful-Sanders, Biden doubled down twice on the false suggestion that former President Donald Trump threatened a violent "bloodbath" should he lose the election and suggested further that his opponent "questioned the humanity of George Floyd." Biden emphasized the frequency with which he has appointed black judges and argued that his "bad debate" should not erase what he believes he has accomplished so far in his presidency.

What caught critics' attention, however, was not Biden's revisionism, his record of race-based hiring, or his desire to look past the debate, but rather his passing identification as a black woman.

"By the way, I'm proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman to serve with a black president. Proud to be involved of the first black woman on the Supreme Court," said Biden. "There's so much that we can do because, together, there's nothing — look. This is the United States of America."

Biden, who has previously adopted the life of another politician, appears to have conflated himself with his multiracial running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris.

The New York Times indicated that Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa was quick to lash out at the media for taking note of Biden's latest gaffe.

'It's just my brain.'

"It was clear what President Biden meant when he was talking about his historic record, including a record number of appointments to the federal bench," said Moussa in reference to Biden's claim of being a black woman. "This is not news, and the media has passed the point of absurdity here."

In the same radio interview, Biden also struggled to make the point that American youth need people of their same race or creed in positions of power to look up to, just as he, as a much younger man, found a role model in John F. Kennedy.

"I'm the first president that got elected statewide in the state of Delaware when I was a kid," said Biden.

The president's subsequent comments indicated he may have been referring to Kennedy's election as the country's first Catholic president, although he provided no such correction or clarification.

Biden's disastrous interview aired the day after he met with around two dozen Democratic governors at the White House. According to the Times, when Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii, a doctor, asked the president about his well-being, Biden responded that his health was fine, "It's just my brain."

In addition to to reportedly joking about his mental faculties, Biden made clear he is staying in the race but needed to work less and to get more sleep.

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Senate Democrats rally behind Biden in spite of disastrous debate performance



Shortly before her death, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked, "Where am I going?" as she was wheeled back into the Senate. Even though her handlers had to audibly instruct the nonagenarian left partially paralyzed by a bad case of shingles to "just say aye" during votes, Feinstein's colleagues appeared unconcerned about the ethics of carting her around to advance their agenda.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), for instance, said that with Feinstein back, "Anything we do in the Senate that requires a majority is now within reach."

Just as Democratic senators were happy to squeeze a sickly old woman in a compromised mental state for her remaining votes, they are ostensibly trying to keep President Joe Biden's campaign alive in hopes of political advantage.

Besides their understanding that Biden cannot be replaced on the Democratic ticket ahead of the election unless he decides to step down, Senate Democrats appear to be trying to prop up the ruins of his campaign because he still might be their best shot at holding on to power. Vice President Kamala Harris is, for instance, even more disliked than Biden. Besides, a competitive open convention could further tear the Democratic Party apart, tipping the election more for Republicans.

In the aftermath of the first presidential debate — while the liberal mainstream media was hurriedly acknowledging the decrepitude they had suggested for years was an invention of the right — Democrats like Sen. Ben Cardin (Md.) began spinning Biden as a viable candidate, reported the Hill.

"Joe Biden might have had a bad evening, but we don't want four bad years under Donald Trump," Cardin told reporters in Washington, D.C., Friday. "Obviously we were all looking forward to a more — I guess — energetic approach."

'Chill the f*** out.'

"But from the substance, I think the American people recognize they have a choice between a person who understands the importance of our democratic system, understands the importance of the issues that he has pursued over the last four years, his record … versus a person on the other side who continues to make things up and wouldn’t respond to simple questions," added Cardin. "To me it's a clear choice that we need to make sure President Biden is re-elected as president of the United States."

While the debate made clear to many Americans that Biden's cognitive faculties are potentially disqualifying, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) drew a different conclusion, writing, "Tonight's debate made the choice clear: Four more years of progress, or four more years of attacks on our fundamental rights and our democracy. We've got to get out the vote for @JoeBiden, @KamalaHarris, and a Democratic Senate and House!"

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) compared his post-stroke debate performance with Biden's post-youth debate performance, stressing on X that "a rough debate is not the sum total of the person and their record."

Fetterman noted further that he had been written off following the debate but came back to win by a comfortable margin. "Chill the f*** out," he instructed his fellow Democrats.

When asked Sunday by NBC News' "Meet the Press" whether Biden should drop out of the race, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said, "Absolutely not," intimating that he himself had bungled enough sermons as a preacher to warrant cutting Biden some slack.

"Bad debates happen, as President Obama has said. And this was 90 minutes," said Warnock.

Unwilling to admit Biden's decline, Warnock opted instead to paint the president as a paragon of virtue and stress the need to keep former President Donald Trump out of the White House.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) echoed his Democratic peers, stating, "This is election is about more than one night's debate performance."

Blumenthal claimed that while in France, he observed the president to be "strong and eloquent." He also downplayed the possibility of another Democratic candidate, emphasizing, "I continue to support Joe Biden over Donald Trump without any reservation, and I think that's the choice for the American people."

The Hill noted that Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.) made clear that he and his Democratic colleagues, who will all serve as superdelegates at the Democratic National Convention, will back Biden unless he calls it quits.

"I thought President Biden started off not with the enthusiasm, etc., necessary but it's a difference between a bad initial debate and a very bad presidency, which Donald Trump can claim — and also a much worse presidency going forward," said Reed.

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Jill Biden makes matters worse, humiliating her husband on and off stage following his brutal debate performance



President Joe Biden crumbled in his debate Thursday with former President Donald Trump in Atlanta, prompting even his biggest boosters at allied news outlets to eulogize his campaign. While Biden's garbled answers, bouts of confusion, and departures from reality were damning enough for the 81-year-old Democrat, his wife found a way to make matters worse.

Footage captured by CNN shows former President Donald Trump confidently stride off the CNN debate hall stage following the ordeal. His opponent, however, would not exit unaided.

Jill Biden can be seen carefully taking the president's hand and slowly leading him down roughly three steps.

The juxtaposition of the brutal debate with Biden's subsequent need for direction and a crutch prompted some critics to speculate about the first lady's real role as well as her silence in the face of the president's unmistakable decrepitude.

'Shameful actions as a wife.'

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) responded to the video, "Who is the Commander in Chief?"

Conservative commentator Laura Ingraham noted, "She did this. Embarrassed him, his party and destroyed the country's border and economy by letting him run. Horrible."

Former ESPN host Sage Steele tweeted, "Shame on Jill Biden for allowing this to go on for so very long. Shameful actions as a wife. Shameful actions as a human being."

Some critics asked whether CNN had accidentally broadcast one of the so-called "cheap fakes" its talking heads previously joined the White House in concern-mongering about.

A video went viral earlier this month of Obama having to escort Biden off the stage at a fundraising event after the president locked up in front of an audience. "They are cheap-fakes video," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. "They are done in bad faith."

Jill Biden did not promptly escort Biden back home Thursday, but rather to a watch party, where she would humiliate him again, this time in front of a crowd of supporters.

Joe Biden spent over a week at Camp David preparing for the debate. With the help of over a dozen current and former aides, the New York Times indicated he engaged in multiple strategy sessions and practiced on a mock debate stage. According to the suggestion Thursday by CNN's Erin Burnett, he might also have received the questions to run through in advance.

In light of the investment of time, money, and energy in debate preparation, there was likely some expectation of a passable showing. Jill Biden indicated, however, just how low the bar had been set.

When introducing the leader of the free world, Jill Biden said, "Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question."

"And let me ask the crowd: What did Trump do? Lie!" added the first lady.

While many critics suggested Jill Biden's commendation of the president for the satisfaction of the bare minimum was condescending, others suggested it was indicative instead of a deluded sense he might actually have done all right — a sense anchored in a desire to hold on to power.

Late Thursday night, Jill Biden released a video claiming, "He's the president we need — the president you deserve."

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Former attorney general pulls rug from under DOJ's defense for keeping Biden tapes hidden



On the counsel of Attorney General Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden asserted executive privilege last month to keep recordings of his troubling interview with special counsel Robert Hurt hidden.

In defense of this secrecy, Biden's counsel and Garland cited a 2008 opinion from former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey.

Unfortunately for Biden's executive privilege play, Mukasey issued a declaration in the Heritage Foundation Oversight Project lawsuit against the Biden Department of Justice late Friday night, revealing Garland and his associate deputy to have misapplied his Bush-era argument and to be wrong about keeping the tapes from the American people.

Having described the declaration in advance as a "thermonuclear bomb," Mike Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project, wrote Saturday morning, "Boom[.] Merrick Garland's House of Cards just colapsed."

Background

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as special counsel in President Joe Biden's classified documents case, tasking him in January 2023 with examining "the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered" at Biden's Delaware residence and Washington, D.C., think tank.

Hur concluded his investigation this past February, recommending no charges against Biden. He did, however, note in his 388-page report that his investigation "uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen."

While that acknowledgment was enough to make headlines, the report's suggestion that Biden was too decrepit proved the more alarming.

The Hur report noted Biden's "limited precision and recall during his interviews with his ghostwriter and with our office" and suggested prospective jurors might be disinclined to convict him of a "serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

The report further noted that the Democratic president — whose mental state is apparently too far gone for him to be able to consciously execute a crime — presented himself in October 2023 interviews with Hur's team "as a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory."

Elsewhere in the report, it said "Biden's memory ... appeared to have significant limitations — both at the time he spoke to [his ghostwriter] in 2017, as evidence by their recorded conversations, and today, as evidenced by his recorded interview with out office."

While Biden's 2017 interview was reportedly "painfully slow" and dragged down by Biden's inability to remember events or even read his own notebook entries, his interview with the special counsel's office was far worse.

"He did not remember when he was vice president" or "when his son Beau died," said the report.

The tapes

Upon learning about the recordings, multiple House GOP chairmen requested on Feb. 12 that Attorney General Merrick Garland turn over the Biden-Hur interview tapes and other materials. Garland failed to do so, prompting the chairmen to respond with subpoenas, which Marland defied, resulting ultimately in a congressional vote to hold him in contempt.

Prior to the vote, Garland told Biden in a May 15 letter to "assert executive privilege over the subpoenaed recordings," stressing such an assertion could only be overcome if congressional investigators establish that they have a "sufficient need for the subpoenaed materials."

Sure enough, the White House took Garland's advice, keeping the tapes hidden.

Edward Siskel, counsel to the president, told House Republicans in a May 16 letter, "The Attorney General has warned that the disclosure of materials like these audio recordings risks harming future law enforcement investigations by making it less likely that witnesses in high-profile investigations will voluntarily cooperate. In fact, even a past President and Attorney General from your own party recognized the need to protect this type of law enforcement material from disclosure."

Just as Garland had in his defense of Biden's assertion of executive privilege, Siskel too specifically cited a 2008 opinion from former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, titled, "Assertion of Executive Privilege Concerning the Special Counsel’s Interviews of the Vice President and Senior White House Staff."

In a May 31 court filing, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer put additional emphasis on Garland's use of this opinion.

'The assertion of executive privilege made here goes well beyond the limits of any prior assertion.'

In the opinion, Mukasey asked President George Bush to assert executive privilege with respect to DOJ documents subpoenaed by a congressional committee, noting "such a production would chill deliverations among future White House officials and impede future Department of Justice criminal investigations involving official White House conduct."

It was unwise to lean too heavily on this opinion.

The Oversight Project sues

The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project filed a lawsuit in March to compel the release of the Biden-Hur recordings and other pertinent materials.

Mike Howell said in a statement at the outset, "We are suing not only to find out why Special Counsel Hur gave President Biden the kid gloves treatment but also for the records he relied upon to determine that President Biden is too old and senile to face accountability for his egregious mishandling of our nation’s most important secrets."

"The American people deserve to know how the Special Counsel came to his conclusion. That's why we are suing for them to obtain those records and restore transparency to our government," added Howell.

Part of the reason the Oversight Project is keen to hear the tapes is because the White House admitted to doctoring the Biden-Hur interview transcripts to make Biden appear more coherent. The apparent need to clean up the transcript speaks clearly to the Oversight Project's sense that it is in the interest of the American people to have some insight into the "mental fitness of their president."

The Oversight Project's public records lawsuit was ultimately consolidated last month with suits filed by Judicial Watch and CNN. Other outfits have followed suit.

Mukasey pulls the rug from under Biden and Garland

In a declaration dated June 18 and filed overnight Friday, Mukasey noted that Garland had placed "heavy reliance" on his 2008 analysis of the law enforcement component of executive privilege — to a fault.

'The Department has lost sight of the true institutional interests of the presidency and is putting at risk the important traditions and principles on which the doctrine of executive privilege rests.'

While supportive for the president's constitutional responsibility to assert executive privilege "when necessary to protect sensitive information in the possession of the Executive Branch, Mukasey indicated that "the assertion of executive privilege made here goes well beyond the limits of any prior assertion and is not supported by the 2008 Executive Privilege Letter or other precedents relied upon by the Department."

Mukasey indicated there could be considerable fallout from the Biden DOJ and White House's attempt to hide the tapes using executive privilege.

The reasons given for invoking the privilege are entirely unconvincing, and I believe that by pressing this flawed privilege assertion, the Department has lost sight of the true institutional interests of the presidency and is putting at risk the important traditions and principles on which the doctrine of executive privilege rests, and thus the ability of this and future Presidents to invoke that doctrine when necessary and appropriate.

Mukasey highlighted various glaring differences between Biden's case and the circumstances in 2008.

For starters, he noted that the FBI reports and interview notes at issue in 2008 contained "frank and candid deliberations among senior presidential advisers" regarding White House business, including sensitive decisions on Bus's part as well as communications with the president.

The Biden-Hur interview, on the other hand, "did not touch on official White business, let alone the sensitive deliverations of presidential advisers, but only private conduct."

Mukasey made mince meat of the notion that the release of the Biden-Hur document would discourage "voluntary cooperation with future Department criminal investigations involving official white House actions" as would have been the case in 2008, and noted further the Bush-era documents of interest had still all been confidential, whereas a supposedly verbatim transcript of Biden's interview has already been released.

"I believe the public has an overwhelming interest in hearing the audio recording and that that interest in disclosure overwhelms any conceivable intrusion on the President's privacy interests," added Mukasey.

Mukasey echoed the suggestion of some lawmakers, noting that audio recordings provide additional insights that cannot otherwise be gleaned from a "cold transcript about the witness' demeanor, credibility, mental acuity, and other attributes" — insights that evidently played a role in Hur's ultimate determination not to recommend charges.

'This is the very reason for the existence of the Freedom of Information Act in the first place.'

According to the former attorney general, the effort to hide the tapes strongly suggests that the Biden administration believes its release "would prove embarrassing to the President and politically damaging" — which is hardly a justifiable reason to assert executive privilege or shrug off FOIA requests.

After briefly touching on Garland's intimation that the release of the Biden recordings would be akin to releasing the recording of the dying Challenger astronauts, Mukasey kneecapped the Biden attorney general's suggestion that if released, then the Biden-Hur interview recordings could be manipulated, noting there is ample stock of Biden audio to create "deep fakes."

"[Garland's] case crumbled tonight, "the Oversight Project stressed online. "No one is above the law."

"Despite the Government's voluminous briefing, fanciful arguments, and notwoethy attempts to invent new legal authority, this remains a simple case," said the Oversight Projet's brief. "This is the very reason for the existence of the Freedom of Information Act in the first place."

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KJP suggests videos of Biden's latest mental lapse are 'deepfakes' — but there's nothing fake about these 5 incidents



President Joe Biden joined former President Barack Obama and a handful of Hollywood script-readers in Los Angeles over the weekend to raise money for his re-election campaign. Unlike excerpts of the heavily edited video of the event circulated online by Democratic operatives, Chris Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter shared raw and uninterrupted footage showing the 81-year-old presidential candidate freezing up once again following a shaky interview. In the uncut video, Obama then grabs Biden by the wrist and guides him offstage.

As this was one of a series of instances in recent weeks where Biden appeared stunned and momentarily paralyzed, the White House and Biden boosters further afield — both foreign and domestic — worked vigorously on damage control.

In the White House press briefing Monday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre leaned on a narrative cooked up in the pages of the Washington Post and other allied publications, which suggests that unflattering videos of Biden are "manipulated."

Jean-Pierre attempted to attribute the term "cheap-fakes" originated with the press, but it was White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates who initially trafficked the term in media statements.

"That's exactly what they are. They are cheap-fakes video," said Jean-Pierre. "They are done in bad faith."

Even though the latest video came from a reporter at a left-leaning publication, Jean-Pierre stressed that "the right-wing critics of the president have a credibility problem because ... fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation."

The American people have far more to go off than recent videos of Biden ostensibly locking up to conclude that his mental decline is worsening; that he is severely limited in his ability to execute the duties of his office; and that he is altogether too old to hold office — as they have concluded in recent polls.

Below are five glaring and well-documented examples of Biden gaffes, lapses, and collapses that might warrant suspicion of the White House's denial.

1. The time-traveling president

After suggesting that "Trump and his MAGA friends" were an obstacle to America realizing its grand potential at a February campaign event in Las Vegas, Biden said, "You know, right, right, right after I was elected, I went to what they call a G7 meeting. All the NATO leaders. And it was in — it was in the south of England. And I sat down and I said, 'America is back.'"

Blaze News previously reported that the 47th G7 Summit in Cornwall, England, was held just months before Biden's deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"And Mitterrand, from Germany — I mean, from France, looked at me and said — said, 'You know, what — why — how long you back for?'" said Biden. "And I looked at him, and the — and the chancellor of Germany said, 'What would you say, Mr. President, if you picked up the paper tomorrow in the London Times, and London Times said, 'A thousand people break through the House of Commons, break down the doors, two bobbies are killed in order to stop the election of the prime minister. What would you say?'"

"I never thought about it from that perspective. What would we say that happened in another democracy around the world? Well, the whole world watched — the whole world watched. And what's going on?" added the president.

Biden not only misstated, corrected, then once again misstated François Mitterrand's nationality but erred in suggesting he was alive.

Mitterrand was not the chancellor of Germany Biden allegedly spoke to but rather a former French president who died in 1996.

Biden revealed on another occasion that he might be mentally at least two years behind the time, noting in 2022, "There's a lot of reason to be hopeful in 2020." Even then, Mitterrand was firmly out of earshot.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with dementia have problems with memory; attention; communication; reasoning, judgment, and problem solving; and visual perception beyond typical age-related changes in vision. Forgetting names and old memories are among the signs of dementia highlighted by the agency.

2. 'Where's Jackie?'

Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana died in a car accident on Aug. 3, 2022.

Biden eulogized her later that day, writing, "Jill and I are shocked and saddened by the death of Congresswoman Jackie Walorski of Indiana along with two members of her staff in a car accident today in Indiana."

The Democratic president noted further, "We may have represented different parties and disagreed on many issues, but she was respected by members of both parties for her work on the House Ways and Means Committee on which she served. She also served as co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, and my team and I appreciated her partnership as we plan for a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health this fall that will be marked by her deep care for the needs of rural America."

The White House flew the American flag at half-staff for two full days, and Biden even called the family to offer his condolences, reported the New York Post.

While at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health the following month, Biden revealed that the memory of a partner's recent passing failed to stick.

"And I want to thank all of you here, including bipartisan elected officials like Representative McGovern, Senator Braun, Senator Booker, Representative — Jackie, are you here? Where's Jackie?" said Biden, according to the White House's own transcript. "I didn't think she was — she wasn't going to be here — to help make this a reality. And thanks to Senator Stabenow, Representative DeLauro for their leadership."

3. Doubling down

Biden, who indicated in an interview years ago that he "could drop dead tomorrow," addressed donors at a swanky Manhattan campaign reception hosted by billionaire real estate heiress Amy Goldman Fowler in September 2023.

Biden shared a revisionist account of what events prompted him to run for office, referencing the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, and recycling the false claim that former President Donald Trump suggested there were "fine people on both sides" as if to include the white identitarians in Virginia at the time.

According to Jonathan Lemire, White House bureau chief for Politico and political analyst for MSNBC — hardly a right-wing critic — Biden finished telling this story, then told it "again, nearly word for word."

The White House transcript confirmed that Biden repeated the story nearly verbatim.

Jean-Pierre did not suggest the official transcript was a cheap-fake or deny that Biden was ostensibly playing for a crowd on a loop. Instead, she said he was "speaking from his heart."

4. Doubling over

Biden has unfortunately suffered a number of falls and stumbles since taking office in 2021. Three incidents in particular stand out.

On March 19, 2021, the staircase onto Air Force One proved too much for Biden to handle. Video shows the Democrat, then 78 years of age, scaling the stairs with a firm hold on the handrail. His right leg appears to buckle, sending him stumbling forward. Biden then corkscrews onto one knee, regains his footing, then completes the climb.

Blaze News previously reported that Jean-Pierre blamed the fall on the wind.

"It's pretty windy outside," said Jean-Pierre. "It's very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself."

On June 1, 2023, Biden made an appearance at the graduation ceremony for the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. After shaking the last of the graduates' hands, Biden collapsed. While White House communications director Ben LaBolt suggested Biden had tripped over a sandbag.

Days after stumbling up the stairs to Air Force One again, Biden went for an ill-fated bike ride near his Delaware beach house in June 2022. He rode up to a crowd, slowed down, then collapsed onto his side.

The White House indicated Biden did not ultimately need medical attention.

5. Regime change

Biden has confused country names, wars, and his sister with his wife. He has accidentally undermined painstakingly crafted American foreign policy and called on people to honor the Holocaust. Biden has also unwittingly snubbed foreign leaders. There was one occasion, however, where Biden confided in his own faculties and went off-script that proved more risky than the others.

One month after Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden delivered an address in Warsaw, Poland, condemning the illegal action and underscoring that the battle ahead against autocracy will take time to win.

Toward the end of his speech, Biden deviated from his prepared remarks and suggested what was then interpreted by many — including those in the Kremlin — to be a call for regime change in Moscow.

"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden said in reference to Vladimir Putin.

CNN noted at the time that the White House rushed to correct the president, stating, "The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region."

"He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change," said a White House official.

"My gosh, I wish they would keep him on script," said Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho). "Any time you say or even, as he did, suggest that the policy was regime change, it's going to cause a huge problem. This administration has done everything they can to stop escalating. There's not a whole lot more you can do to escalate than to call for regime change."

While the suggestion to an antagonistic nuclear power that the U.S. wanted its government overthrown was provocative, Biden accidentally risked provocation a second time that trip, implying to American soldiers in Poland that they were headed into Ukraine.

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Excuses abound after Obama escorts Biden offstage following another apparent display of decrepitude



President Joe Biden was downtown Los Angeles Saturday evening raising money, but once again, he managed to raise concern about his cognitive decline.

A Quinnipiac University poll found earlier this year that the super-majority of likely voters think Biden is too old to effectively serve another term as president. If re-elected, he would conclude his term at the age of 86 — roughly twelve years higher than the average life expectancy for the American man. According to a Rasmussen Reports survey conducted late last month, concerns over the 81-year-old Democrat's decrepitude have not gone away, with 57% of likely voters indicating that Biden's mental decline was worsening.

Biden has, after all, provided his critics with plenty of fodder in recent weeks and years, evidencing difficulty completing sentences despite leaning into his heavy reliance on cue cards; struggling to stay upright; repeating himself and telling the same debunked anecdote twice over, nearly word for word and in short succession; mistaking the living for the dead and his sister for his wife; confusing the names of disparate nations; spending roughly 40% of his presidency out of office; and showcasing difficulties controlling his temper.

On Saturday, Biden was joined by former President Barack Obama and a handful of professional script readers, including George Clooney, Jimmy Kimmel, Jason Bateman, and Julia Roberts, at the Peacock Theater, where they raised over $30 million for his re-election campaign, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Democratic mega donor Jeffrey Katzenberg, a cochair of Biden's re-election campaign, hyped the event in advance, noting, "The enthusiasm and commitment for Biden-Harris couldn't be stronger. We all understand this is the most important election of our lifetime."

'Obama then grabs Biden's hand to lead him offstage.'

With Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom (Calif.) and other leftist lawmakers looking on, Biden, fresh off visiting his criminally convicted son, once again recycled the false claim that former President Donald Trump advised people to inject bleach during the pandemic as well as the false flag narrative concerning Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. He also likened Trump to Julius Caesar, a politician assassinated by a cabal of other politicians.

After Biden and Obama finished their seated interview with Kimmel, the two stood for applause. Footage shared by Chris Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter shows Biden frozen in place with his hand raised in what appears to be a halted wave. After a pregnant moment, he pivots slightly into another static pose, at which point his predecessor grabs his wrist and gently escorts him offstage.

Gardner noted in his caption, "Barack Obama and President Joe Biden offer final waves to Peacock Theater crowd as Obama then grabs Biden's hand to lead him offstage following 40-minute conversation with Jimmy Kimmel."

Multitudes of users on X expressed pity and concern over the president's apparent decline. Piers Morgan, among them, wrote, "So embarrassing. The Democrats can't let this go on, surely?"

Biden boosters desperately attempted to spin this latest apparent signal of decrepitude caught on video as a hoax.

White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates was especially prickled by the New York Post's description of the incident, tweeting, "Fresh off being fact checked by at least 6 mainstream outlets for lying about @POTUS with cheap fakes, Rupert Murdoch's sad little super pac, the New York Post, is back to disrespecting it's readers & itself once again. Their ethical standards could deal with a little unfreezing."

Bates appears to have been referencing recent reports indicating that Biden confusedly wandered off at the G7 summit in Apulia, Italy, during a parachute exercise and that he also locked up at the White House's Juneteenth event — both of which were caught on camera.

Gun-control activist David Hogg claimed the Saturday video seen by millions of people "did not happen and is a total lie," prompting a "like" from Democratic propagandist Mark Hamill.

'They think you're stupid.'

Ukrainian blogger Olga Nesterova shared heavily edited footage of the final moments of the event, presenting an alternative account of what supposedly happened.

Biden "influencer" Harry Sisson noted, "MAGA IS LYING AGAIN. The new lie is that Biden had to be 'led off stage' by Obama and that he 'froze' but that is COMPLETELY FALSE! This video shows what actually happened and is not some selectively edited garbage. The lies don’t stop from MAGA."

Whereas the Hollywood Reporter video was apparently uncut, Sisson elected to share the heavily edited version shared by Nesterova.

RNC Research tweeted, "Don't believe your LYING EYES, the Biden White House says. Didn't happen! He's TOTALLY WITH IT, his incompetent stooges say — you just never get to see it. They think you're stupid."

The Washington Post and the Daily Beast are among the liberal publications that joined Obama in coming to Biden's rescue. The Post, which has struggled with the truth in recent years, claimed, "The use of these clips is an especially pernicious couple of examples of manipulated video — what we label 'isolation' under our guide to manipulated video — because it's intended to create a false narrative that doesn’t reflect the event as it occurred. The RNC and its avid followers in the conservative media earn Four Pinocchios."

Self-guided or not, Biden's disapproval rating sits at 58% according to the latest Economist/YouGov poll. His approval rating, alternatively, was 40%; 54% of respondents said that Biden's health and age will "severely limit his ability to do the job" if re-elected; 25% said they would have "little effect on his ability to do his job." Only 11% said they would have no impact at all.

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Biden insists he wants to get Lincoln quote right — then suffers yet another malfunction



President Joe Biden made a point Friday of trying to get an Abraham Lincoln quote right when addressing members of the National Governors Association at the White House. Despite his best efforts and having the notes at his fingertips, the 81-year-old Democrat bungled his reference to the Republican president's first inaugural address, once again providing fodder to those critical of his advanced age.

Governors from over 40 states and territories joined Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and various cabinet members Friday for the NGA Winter Meeting. The NGA indicated that those assembled discussed possible bipartisan solutions to some of the various issues now confronting the American people, including housing affordability, AI risks, and disaster response.

After kicking off his brief remarks with an ethnic jibe, suggesting, "I may be the only Irishman you ever met that's never had a drink," Biden noted the portrait of President Abraham Lincoln looming behind him.

"You know, standing here in front of this portrait of the man behind me here, he — he said — and I want to make sure I get the quote exactly right," said Biden. "He said, ''The better angel.' He said, 'We must address the counsel — and adjust the better angels of our nature.'"

"And we do well to remember what else he said," continued Biden. "He said, 'We're not enemies, but we're friends.' This is the middle of, in the part of the Civil War. He said, 'We're not enemies, we're friends. We must not be enemies.'"

Contrary to Biden's suggestion, Lincoln issued his first inaugural address prior to the Civil War on March 4, 1861, stating, "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

After struggling with the quote, Biden quipped about his advanced age, saying, "Folks, I've been around, I know I don't look it, I've been around a long while."

Biden went on to bemoan the bitterness of politics, claiming that "politics has gotten too personally [sic]."

Just days earlier, the Democratic president indicated that he prefers his segregationist mentors to present-day House Republicans whom he stressed are worse than "real racists."

Biden completely malfunctions as he tries \u2014 and fails miserably \u2014 to read a quote from "the man behind me here"
— (@)

Unable to turn back time, Biden and his campaign have repeatedly appealed to humor in hopes of defusing concerns about his advanced age. Those concerns have not, however, gone away.

A Quinnipiac University poll revealed last week that 67% of likely voters think Biden is too old to effectively serve another term as president. By way of contrast, 57% of voters said that former President Donald Trump, only four years Biden's junior, is not too old to effectively serve again as president.

If re-elected, Biden would start his second term at the age of 82 and conclude his term at the age of 86 — roughly twelve years higher than the average life expectancy for the American man.

62% of voters told Quinnipiac that Biden lacks the necessary physical fitness; 64% said the Democratic president lacks the mental acuity.

Blaze News previously reported that Biden will not take a cognitive test as part of his upcoming annual physical.

Between the new polling numbers and Biden's latest gaffe, Democrats appear keen to once again paint a happy picture.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, 56, told NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday that Biden's advanced age is an asset.

After suggesting Biden's first three years in office were a "master class," Newsom claimed that "it is because of his age that he's been so successful."

Newsom further credited "the wisdom and the character" that Biden has developed over his many decades in politics for the various policies Democrats have been able to drive through in Washington since 2021.

The California governor was not the only Democrat to defend Biden in the face of concerns over his age in recent days.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted the New York Times Wednesday for daring to ask questions about Biden's mental and physical fitness.

During a press gaggle aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, Jean-Pierre quoted a leftist blogger's sense that "'the Times and other major media outlets ought to look in the mirror.'" Quoting Margaret Sullivan's Substack post further, Jean-Pierre added, "'Self-scrutiny and course correction are not among big media's core strengths.'"

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