Member-only story
On Biden — I Apologize.
I apologize for not being quick to call the fact that our president had developed age related mental limitations that were profound and to not have considered the possibility that a tight circle around him might be committed to aiding in covering them up.
Mental deterioration in a sitting president has happened before, as during the late stages of the second Reagan presidency, so he was not running again.
We don’t age alike, some show dysfunction earlier.
It took me until the disaster of Biden’s first debate with Trump, on June 27th 2024, to really get that Biden was not up to the task.
And that was already too late.
There were people, though, who picked up the dysfunction early on. People like then US representative Dean Phillips, who even went on to run for president against Biden.
People like Robert Hur, the attorney who interviewed Biden as part of an inquiry into his having taken White House records to his residency in Delaware, and who concluded that Biden had done so, in contravention of the law, but that his diminished mental capacity exonerated him.
So I apologize for not having listened carefully to those voices.
The consequences of the tardy realization have been horrendous.
Democrats did not hold a primary to consider other candidates and the nomination went to Kamala Harris.
But the lack of a primary meant that she was not tested.
We failed to look at the wider field, to consider other people, like Mr Phillips…
