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President Joe Biden leveled some of his most strident criticism yet against his likely November rival, former President Donald Trump, during an interview with NBC News.
Anchor David Muir asked, “You did address Donald Trump and the guilty verdicts on 34 felony counts before the American people. You told Americans to respect the jury and the outcome of this case. You were at a campaign fundraiser and you told the room a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency. You called it disturbing. What do you think the American people should make of this? How important do you think this conviction should be in this race for president?”
Biden responded: “That’s for the public to decide. But one thing for certain is, stop undermining the rule of law, stop undermining the institutions. That’s what this whole effort is. All the MAGA Republicans are coming out saying this was a fix. This was a jury that was — this was a judge that set up to get Trump. There’s no evidence of any of that. None. He’s trying to undermine it. Look, he got a fair trial. The jury spoke like they speak in all cases and it should be respected.”
Biden also lashed out at Trump’s description of him as being “weak and pathetic.” “Is he describing himself?” Biden responded.
WATCH:
Biden’s attacks on Trump, along with baseless Democrat claims that he is a “threat to democracy,” come at a price: No one, including the president, appears to be trying to defend Biden’s record while in office, which has been rife with inflation, skyrocketing housing costs, high interest rates, and now spiking gas prices again.
Also, Biden is struggling even more cognitively, according to dozens of sources who spoke with The Wall Street Journal over the past few months.
The Journal conducted interviews with numerous individuals — both Republicans and Democrats, including insiders at the White House — for its report and discovered that many expressed significant worries about Biden’s mental suitability for his role. Their concerns align with those of a vast majority of voters as the upcoming election approaches, after years of Biden committing grave mental lapses, ranging from forgetting the timeline of his tenure in office to asserting that he had recently met with individuals who had been deceased for years.
The report comes after Special Counsel Robert Hur decided that he could not bring criminal charges against Biden for mishandling classified material because he did not believe that Biden would be viewed as fit to stand trial. Hur’s description of Biden left Republicans wondering how it is possible that Biden isn’t fit to stand trial but he is supposedly fit to run for reelection.
The administration responded to the story by asserting that most of the claims were false or by attempting to reframe Biden’s statements and actions in a positive light, despite widespread perception to the contrary. Other Democrats defended Biden by attributing his perceived mental decline to a “speech impediment” issue.
The WSJ report said that during a meeting earlier this year about providing funding to Ukraine, Biden reportedly “paused for extended periods and sometimes closed his eyes for so long that some in the room wondered whether he had tuned out.”
He devoted considerable time attempting to persuade lawmakers of the necessity of the funding, despite the fact that those in attendance were already convinced of its importance. Throughout the meeting, Biden spoke very little — frequently deferring to his staff — and when he did speak, attendees struggled to hear him, according to the report.
“You couldn’t be there and not feel uncomfortable,” one attendee told the WSJ. “I’ll just say that.” And Sen. James E. Risch (R-ID) said that when dealing with Biden behind closed doors, “What you see on TV is what you get.”
“These people who keep talking about what a dynamo he is behind closed doors—they need to get him out from behind closed doors because I didn’t see it,” he said.
