ANDREW NEIL: The lies told from the heart of the White House to hide the truth about Biden’s mental decline are a cover-up to put Watergate in the shade

The Democratic Party’s strategy to re-elect Joe Biden as President of the United States was simple and clear: Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, so it is the constitutional duty of all patriotic Americans to prevent him from ever returning to the White House. Vote for Joe!

Given Trump’s behavior on January 6, 2021, when he did nothing—until it was almost too late—to stop a large mob of his supporters from storming Capitol Hill to overturn the 2020 presidential election, it was a legitimate strategy with appeal among voters. The polls showed it. America’s overwhelmingly pro-Democratic media pushed it.

And it has been smashed to pieces by the people who invented it.

We now know that those closest to President Biden in the White House and at the top of the Democratic National Committee (which is controlled by the White House) have been lying to the American people for months, even years, about Biden’s eligibility to run for a second term.

If those at the heart of government and in control of the ruling party are willing to lie, dissemble, and obfuscate to hide the truth from the people — and the simple, uncensored truth is that Biden is clearly incapable of running for, let alone serving, a second term — then I think it is fair to conclude that those who lie pose at least as great a threat to democracy as Trump.

It is vital to America and its allies that whoever sits in the Oval Office is firmly in charge of their departments. In their own self-interest, Team Biden insisted that was true of their man, even as evidence mounted that this was plainly not the case. The falsehoods came from the very top.

The media, complacent and briefed by Jeff Zients, Biden’s chief of staff, and Karine Jean-Pierre, his bumbling spokesperson, and the many followers milling about in anger below them, lapped it up.

There are about ten Democrats for every Republican in mainstream American newsrooms. They faithfully reported what they were told: how sharp, smart and coherent the president was in meetings with his staff and visitors.

I remember telling a White House insider almost a year ago that I thought Biden was looking increasingly shaky and incapable of running again. I was told in no uncertain terms that, unlike this insider, I had not seen Biden operating behind closed doors, where he was “sharp as a knife.”

I was not convinced. I was asked to believe that someone who increasingly stumbled over his words in public—and his feet—was somehow magically transformed in private. I asked if there were any videos of these sessions that illustrated his genius. Our conversation came to an abrupt end.

Anyone who dared to challenge the prevailing narrative was branded a Trump lackey and a peddler of fake news, with some even being excluded from government briefings on key policy matters.

This was a cover-up to obscure Watergate. It was exposed as such in that fateful TV debate with Trump late last month, when Biden had a slow-motion car crash from which he has still not recovered.

Even then, the White House lies didn’t stop. We were told it was just a bad night, that he had a cold, that he was jet-lagged. The excuses came from Team Biden, each one less credible than the last. But something important had changed: Even Jet-Lag Joe’s media cheerleaders didn’t believe what they were being told anymore.

Asked to choose between the spin from the White House and what they saw with their own eyes, even partisan journalists chose their eyes. So did the American people. A large majority now believe Biden is unfit to run for reelection. A clear majority of registered Democrats agree.

Now it’s open season on Biden, from left and right. A steady stream of prominent Democratic politicians, joined by party loyalists in the media and Hollywood, are calling on him to step aside and give someone else a chance to beat Trump, as the polls increasingly show he can’t.

But Biden is tenacious. He has coveted the White House for 50 years and has no intention of giving it up without a fight, especially since his wife is not inclined to do the decent thing.

Many senior Democrats had hoped that Jill Biden would take her husband aside and gently tell him it was time to make way for a new generation. But she loves being First Lady and is even less likely to step down than Joe is. Meanwhile, Hunter Biden, given his many legal troubles, has his own reasons for wanting his father to remain in power.

But a growing number of Democratic members of the House of Representatives are openly opposing the president — 17 as of this writing — and a few senators have said the same. This steady drip-drip, however, is nowhere near a tsunami strong enough to sweep him away.

Yet the ground seems to be slipping beneath his uncertain feet. Thursday night’s press conference wasn’t as much of a disaster as the debate. But it hardly helped Biden’s case that he is composed, let alone competent, when, just before the conference, he introduced Ukrainian President Zelensky as President Putin, or called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump.”

“He left us in purgatory,” said one veteran Democratic loyalist.

Keep an eye on Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker and fellow gerontocrat. Obama remained loyal after the debate crash — “bad debate nights happen” — but he appears to be moving toward the “Dump Biden” camp.

While he may not have been the catalyst for George Clooney’s request for Biden to resign, those who know both have no doubt that the Hollywood star brought it up to his close friend before it was published in the New York Times.

Obama made no attempt to discourage him. In fact, he is said to have made some suggestions to tighten up the text. There have been several reports suggesting that Obama has privately concluded that Biden cannot run again.

Biden can’t count on Obama’s wife Michelle for support. She has been upset with the Biden family since Hunter’s divorce from her close friend Kathleen Buhle. She believes the Bidens mistreated Buhle and showed no compassion or concern for the trauma Hunter caused her.

Barack Obama, for his part, never judged Biden. He sidelined him as vice president for eight years and rarely listened to his advice (including urging Obama not to kill Osama bin Laden).

He also urged Biden not to run for president in 2016. If the Obama clan has turned on Biden, then it’s really over for him.

Then there’s Pelosi, whose advice Biden reportedly values. She made a pointless TV intervention this week, saying she’d support Biden no matter what he decided, but that he had to make his decision… Which was odd, since Biden had already said he’d made up his mind — he was in.

The most ominous development for Biden as this weekend approached was reports that Obama and Pelosi had private discussions about how to engineer his removal as his party’s nominee.

If that turns out to be the case, the dam will surely burst and Biden will have no choice but to withdraw before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.

No amount of lies from the White House could stand up to an Obama-Pelosi double act against the president. Chicago would turn into a bunfight between those who believe the crown automatically belongs to Vice President Kamala Harris and those who want an open contest between a half-dozen candidates.

While the White House tried to shore up Biden’s position after the debate, it tried to shine a spotlight on the many lies Trump had told during the debate. Rightly so. Trump is often a stranger to the truth. But somehow it lacked the strength of people who themselves had been criticized for lying through their teeth.

Biden also fails to realize that by putting himself above party and country, he is guilty of the narcissism of which he often (rightly) accuses Trump.

By holding firm when a graceful exit is needed, Biden not only increases Trump’s chances of winning in November, he also transforms himself into a figure more like Trump than he could ever have imagined.