It was a little pathetic to watch Joe Biden on stage last night mumble so incoherently that nobody could doubt he’s simply a figurehead for leader of the free world. It raises the thought: While he’s been presented as president for three and a half years, who has really been executing the powers and duties of the office?

While Donald Trump’s performance showed him in full command of his will and voice, his own four years in office also pointed in a similar direction. It wasn’t because he was merely a prop for president, like Joe Biden. It was because Trump’s insistence that he energetically carry out the mandate voters gave him conflicted very visibly with the belief among many in the federal government that, at this point, all presidents are props — even the ones who have full command of their faculties.

Montana radio host Aaron Flint pointed out that replacing Biden with another Democrat will still leave in power the people currently using him like a presidential skin suit. That’s also true, to a large extent, of replacing Biden with Trump.

Now, there is indeed a serious difference between a president with dementia and a president without. Certainly nobody could use Trump like a skin suit. Even staff, pollsters, and advisers can’t micromanage him like they micromanage many politicians. However, because we’ve already had the benefit of a Trump presidency, we can see that even a president as vigorous and defiant as he struggled to truly exercise authority over the people and institutions that, constitutionally speaking, the president commands.

Some of the most egregious examples of this occurred among cabinet-level national security types. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman under Trump Gen. Mark Milley was one of the worst offenders. Washington Post and New York Times reporters say, according to excerpts from Haley McLean, that Milley deliberately stayed in his position to sabotage voters’ elected commander-in-chief, saying to staffers of Trump, “I’ll just fight him” and “I will fight from the inside.” (Read more from “The Debate Revealed That Any President Voters Elect Doesn’t Really Run the Government” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

A huge majority of people believe President Biden should drop out of the 2024 race for the White House after Thursday night’s debate debacle, a new Post poll shows.

Eighty-two percent of respondents said the 81-year-old Democrat should not run for re-election in the wake of his disastrous face-off against former President Donald Trump.

In comparison, just 18% said Biden should keep campaigning.

As of Friday morning, a total of 3,340 people had cast their vote in The Post’s poll, which was put out after Biden went head to head with Trump in the first 2024 presidential debate.

The results come after Biden’s raspy and halting attempts to confront his GOP rival on stage sparked fresh calls for the incumbent to consider stepping aside as his party’s nominee — just four months out from the election. (Read more from “Staggering 82% Don’t Think Biden Should Still Run for President: Poll” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

In the wake of President Joe Biden’s heavily scrutinized debate performance, Biden Campaign Co-Chair Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) appeared on CNN’s “Situation Room” to defend the president’s mental capabilities. Despite being pressed by host Wolf Blitzer, Coons dodged a direct answer about whether Biden’s debate performance reflects his daily cognitive state, instead maintaining that Biden remains “sharp and engaged.”

During the interview, Blitzer referenced Vice President Kamala Harris’s own evasive responses when questioned about Biden’s debate performance. “Senator, you mentioned Vice President Kamala Harris, she repeatedly, last night, dodged Anderson Cooper’s questions about whether the Biden we saw in the debate is who he is every day. What’s your answer to that? Because you know him well,” Blitzer asked.

Coons sidestepped the question, choosing instead to extol Biden’s general abilities. “I do. And I was just in Europe for a few days where the G7 Summit was held in Italy. Leaders from across Europe who’ve met with him and worked with him, say the same thing that I’ll tell you from working with him and meeting with him, he is sharp and engaged, his cognitive capabilities are as good as ever,” Coons responded.

Despite Coons’s defense, the president’s debate performance has intensified concerns about his cognitive health. Biden’s raspy voice, frequent pauses, and difficulty completing sentences have left many questioning his mental acuity. Polls reflect these worries: a CBS News/YouGov poll found that only 26% of voters believe Biden has the “mental and cognitive health” to serve a second term, and a WSJ poll showed that just 36% of registered voters think Biden is “mentally up for the job.”

Coons’s insistence on Biden’s sharpness comes after two Biden aides attributed his debate struggles to a cold, an excuse not mentioned before the debate. This strategy of deflection, combined with Harris’s and Coons’s evasions, only fuels skepticism about Biden’s fitness for office. Coons’s mention of Biden’s “shuffle” and “softly” spoken nature does little to alleviate these concerns.

Coons attempted to bolster his argument by praising Biden’s leadership and decision-making abilities. “His abilities for leadership, for surrounding himself with outstanding people, and making the right choice for the American people, that is undimmed. And, frankly, his record is one of the strongest of any president in my lifetime,” he claimed. However, this praise contrasts sharply with the visible struggles Biden displayed during the debate.