OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Vice President Kamala Harris is hitting the campaign trail as one of the most unpopular veeps in modern history and amid falling poll numbers for President Joe Biden.
Just one week after Super Tuesday, Harris returned home to San Francisco to participate in two campaign events in her former political stronghold.
She returned to the Bay Area to discuss issues that will be on the November ballot as the general election rapidly approaches a contentious 2020 rematch between Biden and Trump.
Harris presented the election as a choice between freedom and dictatorship, denying climate change or generating jobs through the green energy economy and defending reproductive rights against depriving women of their bodily autonomy at two private fundraising events.
“This is literally about our democracy,” Harris claimed in a speech to a crowd of about 100, echoing the Biden and Democratic narrative this year that Republicans and former President Donald Trump somehow would have the power to take away rights.
This, even as Biden’s Justice Department is prosecuting his political opponent.
“As a role model, people watch what you do, to see if it lines up with what you say,” the vice president said. “So the world is watching this election, not to mention the profound stakes that the American people have in the outcome of this November.”
Harris hitting the campaign trail comes amid growing concerns about Joe Biden’s mental capacities should he be reelected and have another four years to serve.
To that point, a psychiatrist who has worked with elderly and dementia patients for years said that Biden appeared to be on some form of medication during his raucous, anger-filled State of the Union Address.
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, 81, 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.
The Times noted further:
Dr. Lieberman, who has not personally examined the president, said the signs of potential pharmaceutical use go beyond how Mr. Biden spoke during the nearly 90-minute speech, but also in his mannerisms.
For example, Mr. Biden typically rests his hands on the podium while delivering a speech from the teleprompter. During the State of the Union, he frequently gestured and moved with his hands at a rapid rate, 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 by Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama 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.
