OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A video clip of President Joe Biden during a trip to Saginaw, Mich., on Saturday is raising new questions and concerns about his mental acuity and ability to continue serving as commander-in-chief.
“Biden shuffles up the sidewalk and greets two gentlemen in Michigan, who rush to cover him with their umbrellas — then they guide a VERY confused Biden inside. VIGOR!” the Republican National Committee’s research arm noted on the X platform.
WATCH:
As if we needed another reason to dust off the 25th Amendment and retire this shell of a president.
The "Biden shuffle" is real. So, too, is his dementia. pic.twitter.com/MRry4jQM2e
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) March 17, 2024
According to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult conducted in mid-February, eight-in-10 swing state voters think Biden, at 81, is showing major signs of aging and is too old for another term. Even reliably Democratic voters in the seven swing states believe he’s too old, the UK’s Daily Mail reported.
The outlet added:
It comes as the Biden administration has been pushing back on concerns over the president’s age and mental acuity after the Special Counsel Robert Hur report earlier this month described the president as an ‘elderly man with poor memory.’
Meanwhile, less than half of the respondents in the same survey believe that former President Donald Trump, Biden’s most likely GOP rival, is too old at 77.
In addition, the polling found that Trump is leading Biden across all seven of the swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Besides the economy, which continues to see the vast majority of Americans struggling to make ends meet, the chaotic situation along the U.S.-Mexico border, along with a massive influx of illegal immigrants under Biden’s policies, has become a top voter concern.
Following his SOTU address, a psychiatrist who has worked with elderly and dementia patients for years claimed that Biden appeared to be on some form of medication during his raucous, anger-filled State of the Union Address a day earlier.
Dr. Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills-based forensic psychiatrist, said that “Biden exhibited signs of stimulant use to mask cognitive decline in his amped-up, aggressive” speech, the Washington Times reported.
Biden often appeared to hurry through his speech and would raise his voice despite the fact that he had a microphone in front of him. The Times also cited Lieberman when reporting that “speed and volume of speech can be a sign of using Adderall or another amphetamine.”
“If you look at how Joe Biden usually is — slow and stumbling — compared to how he was during the State of the Union — fiery and angry — these are signs that are typical for someone taking Adderall or any amphetamine,” she said.
At times, Biden slurred his words, a characteristic not uncommon for him, she clarified. However, she noted that on this occasion, he did so at a notably accelerated and animated pace, hinting that he might have been “psychopharmacology helped.”
“It was a word salad on speed,” she said.
Biden’s unusually amped-up speech delivery also caught the attention of many other seasoned political observers, the Times reported.
“No one is going to remember a single thing Biden says tonight. Everyone is going to remember how weirdly amped up he is and how bizarrely fast he’s speaking,” former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer wrote on X.
The Republican response to Biden’s “angry” speech was equally raucous, but much of it focused on criticisms of his border, economic, and foreign policies as illegal immigration and inflation skyrocketed to Americans’ top concerns this election year.
Freshman Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) gave the official response, which has led to rumors that she might be on former President Donald Trump’s shortlist for running mates because she described much of Biden’s speech as being wildly out of touch with the issues most Americans care about.
