Bob Costas says Democrats may have ‘gaslit’ America over Biden's decline: 'Overwhelmingly obvious for so long'

Longtime sports broadcaster Bob Costas took the Democratic Party to task for acting surprised over President Biden’s debate performance last week, stating it’s been "obvious" that he’s been on the decline for years.

The NBC Sports legend appeared on CNN’s "Smerconish" Saturday morning to react to all the angst within the party following Biden’s disastrous performance. He slammed liberals for not admitting Biden’s mental decline sooner so that a better candidate could be found to beat former President Trump.

"That one atrocious night was simply writ-large what could be seen for years and years, that he is in serious decline," Costas said. He added that it "makes you wonder whether we’ve been gaslit by the Democrats."

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(Screenshot/CNN)

Host Michael Smerconish prompted the discussion by asking the former NBC sports anchor whether people in the party were actually blindsided by Biden’s decline at the debate or if people like Costas were the only ones brave enough to admit what everyone was ignoring until Biden's recent performance forced the issue.

"Yeah, I think it’s the latter and it only became more overwhelmingly obvious with the debate performance," he said, adding that people who are defending Biden as having one bad night aren’t seeing what has been the case "for years."

"Nobody should be president when they‘re 85 or 86, including the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, but this guy is clearly in decline at this point. And part of the job, leaving aside whether he can do it for the next four years, is winning the job. And as you just laid out that seems to be nearly impossible at this point."

Costas then grilled some Democrats’ argument that the party needs to unite behind the president because of how bad Trump is. "No," he said, "that’s exactly why Joe Biden must be ushered out."

The pundit referenced that he’s been urging the party to ditch Biden for more than a year and stressed the urgency of that advice in the current moment. "Now, we can no longer indulge [Biden’s] delusions."

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President Joe Biden speaking at a campaign event at Renaissance High School, Friday, July 12, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

"These are desperate times and they call for measures that are appropriate to the circumstances," he added. 

Smerconish then mentioned that if it weren’t for the debate, people like actor George Clooney, who called out Biden’s decline in a recent New York Times op-ed, would have kept acting as if Biden was fine.

Costas slammed that attitude, saying, "This has been so overwhelmingly obvious for so long. You don’t need a degree in public policy from Harvard to see it and to say it – if you’re willing to say it – anymore than you need a degree from MIT to say two plus two is four. And it makes you wonder whether we’ve been gaslit by the Democrats."

"This had to have been obvious to people surrounding the president, people who observed the president," he said, asking, "Wouldn’t it have been an act of patriotism, if that’s not too overblown a word in this case, to lay that out?"

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