Biden’s party has lied to the public – and itself – about him for too long, writes Freddy Gray

Denial, anger, depression and acceptance. America’s Democrats went through these stages of grief on Thursday night as Joe Biden crashed and burned on the CNN debate stage.

After the event, the media spinning rooms felt like a wake.

The speakers all sadly agreed that now may be the time to accept what the rest of the world has known for some time: Joe Biden is not fit to be a presidential candidate in 2024.

Non-democrats may think they have the right to respond: what planet do these people actually live on?

Last night was perhaps particularly painful, as Biden spoke incoherently on every topic. But anyone with eyes to see has known for some time that the American commander in chief is not in good health.

His presidency has become a sad farce, as the 81-year-old mumbles pathetically and stumbles and stumbles across the world stage. His apparent senility can by no means have been a total surprise. He only confirmed the worst fears, and more, about his mental state.

For years, Democrats have maintained – often in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary – that Joe is fully fit and firing on all cylinders.

In meetings, they claim, he is full of beans and always on the facts. But last month, in a significant breach of the party line, senior sources close to the president revealed that Biden had appeared increasingly challenged in meetings.

In January, during a congressional meeting on national security and Ukraine, he spoke so softly that he could barely be heard and remained silent for so long that aides feared he had fallen asleep.

Their claim that all is well has therefore often sounded as contrived as a North Korean press release about the power of Kim Jong Un. It is misleading at best – an outright lie at worst.

In 2020, during the last presidential election, talk of Biden’s early dementia was dismissed as malicious Republican gossip. But even then he showed signs of decline.

The Covid pandemic that year spared him the usual rigors of campaigning. Thanks to lockdowns, he spent much of the run-up to the election in his basement at home in Delaware, communicating via Zoom.

It is telling that he lost his temper when a friendly reporter asked him if he had taken a cognitive test. “Come on, man!” he replied. “That’s like saying, before you go on this program, did you take a test to determine whether or not you use cocaine?”

Biden was better then than he is now. He defeated Trump in the first presidential debate of 2020. But in other interviews and public appearances that year, he often lost the thread and seemed confused in interviews.

After Biden moved into the White House, his team did everything it could to cover up his declining capabilities.

His press conferences are meticulously crafted. The White House now has a PR protocol that requires the president to be flanked by an entourage that walks slowly beside him across the lawn between the White House and Marine One, the presidential helicopter, to prevent TV crews and photographers from capturing more embarrassing footage.

Now, after the humiliations on CNN on Thursday, that charade appears to have finally come to an end. Joe and his wife Jill, the First Lady, still seem oblivious, at least publicly.

At a post-debate rally on Thursday, Jill addressed her husband in front of a crowd of die-hard fans: “Joe, you did a great job!” she shouted, as if addressing a handicapped child. “You answered every question!”

But outside Biden’s inner circle, most Democrats are abandoning any pretense that all is well.

So why did it take so long for Democrats to publicly acknowledge this glaring reality? The willingness of party loyalists to change their tune this week has raised some suspicions in Republican circles.

The theory now is that Democratic leaders, possibly at Barack Obama’s insistence, pushed for the first presidential debate to take place earlier — normally in September — so that the Democratic machine would have time to replace Biden if he were to fail.

But if Democrats were really that calculating, why didn’t they throw out Biden last year before the nomination process began?

Biden now has all the delegates he needs to be confirmed at their Democratic convention in Chicago in August. Unless he chooses to step aside, or dies, he will be virtually unstoppable.

The truth is that Democrats are paralyzingly afraid of Trump’s possible comeback. That’s why they’ve clung to Joe Biden — the man who defeated him in the election four years ago — despite his glaring decline.

However, we are now less than 130 days away from the election, and Democrats’ stubborn refusal to accept Biden’s mortality early could ultimately propel Trump to the White House.

Most people are not happy about the prospect of Trump taking charge again. But just as many British voters now feel about the Conservative Party, a growing number of Americans believe that the unworldly Democrats should be punished at the election.

Joe Biden’s party has been lying to the public—and itself—for too long.

Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator