The White House leapt to do damage control while the Wall Street Journal was conducting a series of interviews with lawmakers on President Joe Biden’s fitness for office, a report published Tuesday night revealed.
Over the last several months, the WSJ conducted more than 45 interviews with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as well as administration officials, on the president’s health and mental acuity. The White House “kept close tabs” on the WSJ’s reporting, the outlet wrote, after some Democrats who were interviewed relayed information about their discussions to the White House. (RELATED: Joe Biden’s Time Interview Was Full Of Senior Moments)
The White House apparently instructed the Democrats to give additional pro-Biden commentary to the WSJ for the piece.
“They just, you know, said that I should give you a call back,” New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks told the outlet, referring to the White House.
“We thought it was important that all perspectives be represented,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told the WSJ, adding that it was to correct “false and politically motivated claims.”
The WSJ noted that while most of those who said Biden was slipping behind closed doors were Republicans, there were aso some Democrats who expressed concern over the 81-year-old’s fitness. The WSJ made note of several meetings that occurred over the last six months in which lawmakers recounted the president appearing to lapse cognitively. The White House, administrative officials and other Democrats denied that Biden’s fitness was worsening, and pushed back on some anecdotes the WSJ reported.
Yep. Complete and utter editorial fail by the @wsj. Makes you wonder who they’re taking orders from … https://t.co/akqlpuhGrG
— Ben LaBolt (@WHCommsDir) June 5, 2024
“Yep. Complete and utter editorial fail by the [WSJ],” White House communications director Ben LaBolt tweeted in response to the article. “Makes you wonder who they’re taking orders from …”
US President Joe Biden exits his motorcade and walks to board Air Force One enroute to Washington, DC at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware on May 31, 2024. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
“Literally, the sole on-record critic in the entire story is Kevin McCarthy, whose interview contradicts his earlier public and private statements about finding the President sharp in their private meetings,” Bates told the Caller. “What’s more, Democratic members of Congress who refuted Republicans’ lies on the record were left out of the article. So was Governor Roy Cooper.”
“It’s a little surprising that The Wall Street Journal thought it was breaking news when congressional Republicans told them the same false claims they’ve spouted on Fox News for years,” he continued, “but it’s also telling that the only individuals willing to smear the President in this story are political opponents afraid to use their names – plus one proven liar.”
NC Governor Roy Cooper reacts to WSJ report: “I’ve had numerous insightful & detailed conversations with the President over the last few years, and actually had a conversation with the WSJ about those discussions that I had with the President, but I didn’t see them in print.”
— DJ Judd (@DJJudd) June 5, 2024
One instance included a January meeting with top lawmakers on aid to Ukraine, the outlet reported. At the beginning of the meeting, Biden greeted nearly two dozen Congressional leaders, but took 10 minutes to do so because he was moving “so slowly,” sources in attendance said.
During the meeting, the president relied on notes to talk broadly about Ukraine while others had a hard time hearing Biden, the WSJ reported. Those in attendance told the WSJ that the president often deflected the conversation away from himself and turned to staffers when he was asked something.
“You couldn’t be there and not feel uncomfortable,” a person in attendance told the outlet. “I’ll just say that.”
Casey Redmon, a National Security Council official who was in the room, told the WSJ that Biden only turned to his aides twice and Gene Sperling, a top Biden aide, told the WSJ that it is typical for presidents to refer to their notes.
House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested to the president a list of executive actions that he could take to address the border crisis during the same meeting, the outlet reported. In response, Biden “chided him,” sources told the WSJ. Bates characterized the response as a “lighthearted comment” and added that Johnson previously described the meeting in a positive manner.
“I’ve forgotten more about immigration than you’ll ever know,” the president responded, according to the outlet.
Following the January meeting, others felt the president handled it well, the WSJ reported.
“I found him to be the same Joe Biden that I’ve known since I came to Congress,” Meeks told the outlet.
Concerns about Biden’s fitness for office heightened in February following a special counsel report detailing the president’s handling of classified documents. Special counsel Robert Hur concluded his investigation and noted in his report that he was opting not to charge Biden. Hur justified his decision by saying the jury could see the president as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
As a part of his report, Hur noted that during his two day, five hour interview with Biden, the president appeared to forget when his vice presidency began and ended as well as the date of his late son’s death. (RELATED: Biden Lied About Beau Exchange With Robert Hur During Angry Press Conference, Transcript Confirms)
The WSJ follows a Time Magazine interview with Biden that was released Tuesday, in which the president had a number of mental lapses pertaining to foreign leaders, which continent certain countries are a part of and where top administration officials had been traveling.
People in the executive branch are so busy that they can’t be blamed for not remembering details such as what day of the week certain things happened several weeks ago, a White House official told the Daily Caller.
