In broad strokes, the Biden presidency has been the most disastrous we've seen in our lifetimes. Let's count the ways:
Inflation continues to rise, as do gas prices. The border is a humanitarian and national security nightmare, exhausting city budgets and making our already unsafe cities even more unsafe. Fentanyl continues to kill thousands of Americans each month. Education test scores are at record lows. And the world feels like it's on fire with the U.S. fighting two proxy wars while costing the country hundreds of billions, all while China continues its aggressive posture toward Taiwan.
The face of this failure, of course, is the president himself. Perhaps someone like his old boss, Barack Obama, could spin his way out of all of the aforementioned messes with coherence and charisma that made him a two-term president. But whatever version of Joe Biden the country and the world are witnessing now, can't even give one speech or one press conference without reminding voters that he isn't aging like a fine wine. Instead, as this brutal headline in The Atlantic notes -- Biden’s Age Is Now Unavoidable: Joe Biden looks like he is turning into a statue of Joe Biden.
It's hard to truly express just how bad things got for the 81-year-old president this week, and all were unforced errors of the bizarre variety: On one occasion, he couldn't remember the name of the terror organization who carried out the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust (hint: Hamas.) On another, he referred to a conversation he recently had with French President Francios Mitterrand. The French leader died nearly 30 years ago. The next day, he shared that he spoke to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl about Jan. 6. Kohl passed away four years before the Capitol riots even occurred.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the commander-in-chief and his conversations with dead people, and her response made one want to voluntarily climb into a coffin, because it was that bad.
"I want to just step back for a second and just kind of think really kind of top level of what the president was talking about when he tells a story about having these conversations with world leaders, which are obviously important conversations. He was underlying the Jan. 6 events in 2021, what happened," Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday, "The message that it sent around the globe, around the world to our leaders, to world leaders, how dangerous it is, our democracy, how important democracy was and or is continues to be, obviously."
What in God's name is she talking about?
"As it relates to the names and what he was trying to say, many people, elected officials, many people, you know, they can misspeak sometimes, right?" she finally added.
OK. This part is true. But when was the last time an elected official misspoke twice in two days about speaking to other world leaders who left this mortal coil some time ago?
And then on Thursday, an earthquake hit the White House and Biden's defenders in the media after Special Counsel Robert Hur concluded in his investigation that, while the president had indeed mishandled classified documents that were found in various places including in his garage in Delaware next to his Corvette, he also wasn't going to charge him with any crimes. That should have been very good news for Biden during what was a tough week to this point, but here came the dagger:
"At trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," investigators wrote.
Talk about being rhetorically shivved. And then there were the details around how Hur and his team came to this conclusion... details about how Biden couldn't remember when he was vice president (which only lasted eight years) and how Biden couldn't remember the year his own son Beau, whom he references often, died.
BIDEN BLISTERED BY MAINSTREAM MEDIA AFTER 'DISASTER' PRESS CONFERENCE: 'ELDERLY, IRRITABLE MAN'
The report became the topic of conversation on Thursday afternoon, and not in a good way for Joe Biden. So, his communications team, sensing a need to put the president out there to show he's still mentally fit and in charge, hastily called an evening press conference in the Diplomatic Room at the White House. What Americans got was an angry old man who only exacerbated matters further. The notable moments included:
- Calling Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi "the president of Mexico."
- Telling reporters he has worn Beau Biden's rosary every day since his passing, only to have his voice trail off after saying, "Our Lady of..." before forgetting the name of the church.
- Yelling at a reporter who simply broached that many voters feel that he is no longer fit to serve as president.
"That is your judgment. That is your judgment! That is not the judgment of the press!" he bellowed.
It is the judgment of an overwhelming majority of voters, Mr. President. A recent NBC poll shows that just 23% of those surveyed feel Biden has the mental fitness to be president. That's less than one quarter.
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Perhaps the worst part of the president's week came earlier on Thursday at the Supreme Court, where Donald Trump appeared to have a very good day. The case before them regards Colorado's efforts to remove Trump from the ballot. But Justice after Justice, both conservative and liberal, questioned the state's legal standing for doing so. And in the end, the conversation wasn't about whether Trump would be on the ballot, but if the decision to keep him on would come back 8-1 or unanimously.
"There is clearly a foundation here for unanimity," noted law professor Jonathan Turley, also a Fox News legal analyst. "You could not help but feeling some sympathy for [Colorado lawyer Jason] Murray, it's like "West Side Story," when you show up and find out none of your Sharks are there, everyone is a Jet."
Biden now trails in every crucial swing state, according to a recent Morning Consult/Bloomberg poll. Trump is the odds-on favorite to win back the presidency with the wind seemingly at his back.
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Make no mistake: This was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for Joe Biden. The impression that the president is too old and too far gone for the job is now at concrete status in the minds of most voters.
The question now is: What will the powers that be in the Democratic Party do about it?