Patterico's Pontifications

7/4/2024

President Biden Does Damage Control

Filed under: General — Dana @ 2:47 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Since President Biden’s disastrous debate appearance, he has been slow to do damage control. The confusing message coming from the Biden campaign about the President’s health has not cleared up any doubts:

President Joe Biden was examined by his physician in the days following last week’s. . .debate, the White House tells CNN — despite the White House press secretary having said Wednesday that the president has had no medical exams since his February physical.

“Several days later, the president was seen to check on his cold and was recovering well,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said.

On Wednesday, CNN had asked Karine Jean-Pierre. . . whether the president had received “any medical exams” since his February physical, and the press secretary had responded: “We were able to talk to his doctor about that and that is a no.”

A White House official adds when Biden was seen by his doctor after the debate, it was a “brief check,” not a “physical.”

The White House also claims that “Jean-Pierre said Biden had not had any medical exams since February because she was drawing a distinction between the president being checked out by his doctor and receiving a formal “physical”.

Oh.

More:

Jean-Pierre was asked by a reporter to clarify whether the president had been checked out by his doctor around the debate given that he had a cold.

“He was on the way to the debate, the doctor was with him, he had a cold, he’s 81. Does he not get checked out by the doctor?” the reporter asked.

“He did not get checked out by the doctor. It’s a cold, guys. It’s a cold.” she said. “I know that it affects everybody differently. We’ve all had colds, and so no, he was not checked out by the doctor.”

For his part, President Biden initially blamed his poor performance on a cold. After that it was an exhaustive travel schedule and jet lag, although he had been home for two weeks before the debate. Then followed the Biden team saying that the president had been over-prepped for the debate and just had “too many facts crammed in his head”. And at yesterday’s meeting with Democratic governors, President Biden told them that he needed more sleep and would stop scheduling events after 8 PM. He also told the governors that after his lackluster debate performance he had undergone a medical exam. He told them that he continues to be healthy.

When asked why the president didn’t begin damage control immediately after the debate, an unsatisfactory answer was provided by his spokesperson:

Jean-Pierre later added that Biden did not do more damage control on his debate performance immediately afterward because he was traveling in North Carolina, New York and New Jersey before returning late Saturday night to Camp David.

The report reminds readers that “Air Force One is equipped with extensive communications equipment so that presidents can stay informed while midair.”

What a mess. It’s now 123 days until the election. The last thing a sitting President running for re-election wants at this point is for a Democrat-friendly media and fellow Democrats calling on him to step down. Unfortunately, it is very clear that the call for Biden to step down is growing louder.

On a side note, I will give the Biden team props for a smart campaign video:

—Dana


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