The corporate media rushed to explain President Joe Biden’s performance and raspy voice during the debate by saying he has a cold.
Biden noticeably spoke with a raspy voice and trailed off during the Thursday night debate with former President Donald Trump. Two aides for the president told NBC News that his poor start is due to a cold.
The president’s team did not mention the president’s alleged cold prior to the debate, according to Politico.
NEW: Two sources familiar with the situation say “President Biden has a cold.”
— Kelly O’Donnell (@KellyO) June 28, 2024
A source familiar with the President’s debate prep confirms that POTUS — who has a noticeably raspy voice — has been battling a cold the past few days.
— Nancy Cordes (@nancycordes) June 28, 2024
The outlet pointed to the 81-year-old’s president’s “slow start” due to his illness, and immediately suggested he improved toward the halfway point by speaking with “more force and clarity.” The president’s performance followed voters’ pessimism regarding his age and mental capacity necessary to serve a second term.
Trump called on Biden to take a drug test ahead of the debate to ensure he did not take performance enhancing substances. Biden reportedly rehearsed for a week while vacationing at Camp David.
A column published by The Wall Street Journal detailed the elderly president’s deteriorating memory inability to properly communicate with world leaders and political allies. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is quoted in the column, described meetings with the president in which he would allegedly “ramble” and heavily relied on notes. (RELATED: Biden Lies That No Troops Have Died Under His Watch)
House Speaker Mike Johnson attended a Feb. 27 meeting with Biden about military assistance to Ukraine, where he was stunned by the president’s alleged forgetfulness of details regarding his own policies, according to the WSJ column. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates called Johnson’s allegations a “false account.”
Special Counsel Robert Hur described Biden as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” in his report following an investigation into whether he ought to have been prosecuted for mishandling classified documents. The report did not fare well with voters’ perception of the president’s mental capacity, with an ABC News poll finding 86% of surveyors believe Biden is “too old” ahead of the 2024 election.
A series of polls found voters are concerned about Biden’s age and mental capacity to serve a second term. A CBS News/YouGov poll found 26% believe Biden has the “mental and cognitive health” to serve a second term, while 43% said the same about former President Donald Trump. A WSJ poll found 36% of registered voters believe Biden is “mentally up for the job,” and 49% said the same about Trump.
Concerns about the president’s age date back to the early days of his term, when a New York Times/Siena College poll found 64% of Democratic voters preferring a different nominee in 2024.
