Biden seemed to have trouble answering questions, often sputtering, mumbling, trailing off and freezing on stage. At one point, following nearly 10 seconds of silence, Biden declared that he “finally beat Medicare.”
At one point, Trump pointed out that Biden was becoming practically incomprehensible on stage. After one particularly rambling answer, the former President shot back “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence – and I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
Less than 24 hours later, The New York Times editorial board called on Biden to step aside and allow the party to pick his replacement.
“Mr. Biden challenged Mr. Trump to this verbal duel. He set the rules, and he insisted on a date months earlier than any previous general election debate. He understood that he needed to address longstanding public concerns about his mental acuity and that he needed to do so as soon as possible,” the paper wrote. “The truth Mr. Biden needs to confront now is that he failed his own test.”
The problem is, Biden’s failing mental abilities have been a known issue for years. In 2019, before Biden had secured the Democratic nomination, concerns were already bubbling to the surface even among Democrats.
“There is no question that what has propelled Vice President Biden to clear front-runner status [in the 2020 Democratic primaries] is his unparalleled experience in contrast to his primary counterparts,” a pollster and former Obama-Biden campaign consultant told Politico. “But am I hearing gargantuan concerns among Democratic insiders about Biden’s advanced age, which is the very byproduct of that experience derived from a lifetime of public service? Absolutely yes.”
But once Biden secured the nomination and especially after his election, Democrats brushed aside concerns about Biden’s age.
In May, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said “This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second and I’ve known him for years… if it weren’t the truth, I wouldn’t say it.”
On Friday, Scarborough had changed his tune. “If he were [a] CEO and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 Corporation in America, keep him on as CEO?” he asked.
Democrats were warned about Biden’s mental acuity. Five years later, they are forced to deal with it.