President Joe Biden, 81, made no mention of concerns about his health during his 11-minute speech in the Oval Office and offered no further details about why he was suddenly withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race.
The clearest explanation he could give was that he didn’t want “ambition” to get in the way of his goal of “saving” democracy — code language for not wanting former President Donald Trump to win another term.
Biden’s official speech comes 28 days after his disastrous debate performance, which jeopardized his re-election chances.
During the confrontation with Trump in Atlanta, Biden appeared confused and mumbled his words. The White House tried to attribute this to a bad night and the president’s cold.
But soon a number of reports emerged indicating that the president had been deteriorating for several months.
President Joe Biden made no mention of concerns about his health during his address to the nation in the Oval Office on Wednesday night.
Actor George Clooney wrote an op-ed for The New York Times saying that the Biden he met at a June fundraising event “wasn’t the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same guy we all saw at the debate.’
Clooney encouraged the president to resign.
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat, said Biden did not recognize himself when they met in Normandy in June to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Republicans blamed the White House for the president’s health.
Biden made matters worse when, during a post-debate call with George Stephanopoulos, he refused to undergo additional medical tests, including a new cognitive exam.
The White House said a neurologist examined Biden in mid-January and the results were released during his annual medical exam in February.
Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre also botched the initial response to a New York Post story that said a Parkinson’s expert had visited the White House.
President Joe Biden is photographed arriving in Dover, Delaware on Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19. The positive test came after he told BET News a “medical condition” could take him out of the 2024 race
That expert, Jean-Pierre later explained, was on campus as a neurologist conducting the president’s annual check-up.
Biden initially said that only “God Almighty” would force him not to run for re-election.
Last Wednesday, during a pre-recorded interview with BET News, the president said he would recuse himself “if a medical condition were to come to light.”
“If doctors came to me and said, ‘You have this problem, that problem,’” he added.
Hours later, the president tested positive for COVID and was rushed from his campaign trail in Las Vegas to Delaware, where he was not seen in public for six days.
At that time, he announced that he was canceling his plans for 2024.
Still, the White House would never admit that Biden’s decision had anything to do with his declining health.
When Biden’s youngest brother Frank CBS told Sunday that he believed part of the president’s decision to suspend the campaign was health-related, a family source reacted strongly.
“Frank Biden suffers from alcoholism and hasn’t spoken to his brother in weeks. What he said…is completely untrue,” the source said.
During Wednesday’s briefing, Jean-Pierre also rejected this explanation.
“It has nothing to do with his health,” she said. “I can say, no, that’s not the reason.”