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A report on Friday quoted a psychiatrist who has worked with elderly and dementia patients for years who claimed that President Joe 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 forensic psychiatrist based in Beverly Hills, 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 speed through his remarks and raise his voice despite the fact that he had a microphone in front of him. The Times said that “speed and volume of speech can be a sign of using Adderall or another amphetamine,” according to Lieberman.
“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.
Other times, Biden slurred his words, which is not out of the ordinary for him, she explained, but he did so at a much faster, more animated pace, suggesting he was “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.
Frank Luntz, a GOP pollster and political consultant, noted on the X platform that Biden’s address was “the loudest State of the Union speech I can remember.”
“Let’s see whether undecided voters like being yelled out,” he said.
In another misstep, Biden mistakenly referred to Laken Riley, a young nursing student in Georgia whose murder is attributed to an illegal immigrant.
“Lanken — Lanken Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed,” Biden said, according to the White House’s transcript. though many observers thought he said “Lincoln Riley.”
“He couldn’t correct his mistakes. He mentioned Moscow in a sentence where it made no sense. You could see him try to fix it, but he didn’t know how to correct himself. He couldn’t say the correct word,” Lieberman explained to the Times. “Anyone could trip over Laken Riley’s name, but he didn’t know how to correct it. If he knew enough about her to talk about her, he would know enough to call her by the right name.”
She also noted that the anger and shouting witnessed Thursday night could potentially be indicative of dementia, as some patients may experience frustration before significant events and react aggressively.
“The emotional volatility is a sign of dementia and was amped up because of the Adderall or amphetamine they gave him,” she said. “He wasn’t just talking loudly. He was shouting in a room where everyone could hear him, and he had a microphone.”
This isn’t the first instance where someone has implied that Biden might rely on medication to stay on message. Back in 2020, President Trump accused Biden of using drugs to boost his performance during the Democratic primary debates, the Times reported.
