White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to allegations of a years-long coverup of Biden’s cognitive decline in her first press briefing since Biden dropped out of the presidential race, and her answer ultimately amounted to a communications blunder.
“It would seem that people in this White House knew that President Biden was slipping, and it was hidden from the American people. So, who ordered White House officials to cover up a declining president?” Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Jean-Pierre on Wednesday.
The press secretary immediately denied that there was a concerted effort to trick the American people into believing that Biden was capable of handling the pressures of the office.
“It is not a coverup. I know that is a narrative that you all want. It is not. I’m going to say this again, and you’re going to hear it directly from the president. I hope you listen tonight. I think it’s going to be incredibly powerful and important—the Oval Office. Presidents, as you know, when they make speeches from the Oval Office, it’s because they’re important moments that they want to directly make sure that the American people hear from them. And it’s obviously going to be done in primetime. I would listen to the president,” Jean-Pierre responded, before calling the president’s decision to bow out “historic … unusual” and, finally, “selfless.”
.@pdoocy: “Who ordered White House officials to cover up a declining president?” @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/oxmvhAK6me
— Nicole Silverio (@NicoleMSilverio) July 24, 2024
But her denial did nothing to calm speculation surrounding the theory that the White House, his family and the media banded together to cover up Biden’s cognitive decline to keep Democrats in power. Instead, her response seemed to add buckets of chum to the waters.
“‘There’s been no coverup’ is an all-time communications faceplant,” Daily Caller editorial director and WMAL radio host Vince Coglianese said. (ROOKE: Swing-State Candidate Gives Republicans Clear-Cut Plan To End Kamala’s Momentum)
The Democrats appear to be trying to thread a needle. Biden is stepping down from the race, but they don’t want him to admit that it is because he cannot handle rigorous presidential duties. To Doocy’s point, if it is about Biden’s mental condition, then they all (elected Democrats, White House staff, and even Vice President Kamala Harris) come under questioning about when and how his health became an obstacle, and why it was concealed from Americans.
As early as the 2020 presidential campaign, there were rumors that Biden’s mental health was declining. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee mocked Biden’s “basement campaign” in an interview with Fox News in May 2020.
“This is a guy who has spent the last several months in the basement,” Huckabee said. “It’s where you put all your cranky relatives… and keep ’em out of sight because every time he surfaces… he comes out, sees his shadow, makes a gaffe, and then he spends the next three days with… his staff apologizing for what he said.”
Supercut: Biden stumbles his way through the final Democratic debate pic.twitter.com/d1S7mYNXCx
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 15, 2020
Republicans claimed he was running a basement campaign to keep him from being exposed. Pandemic restrictions and media coverage aided his ability to stay out of the public eye. However, when he was forced to speak directly to Americans, it was more evident that these theories might be true.
Biden botched the Declaration of Independence during a campaign stop in Texas ahead of Super Tuesday in 2019. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” Biden said. “All men and women created by — you know, you know, the thing.”
During the same stop, he also called Super Tuesday “Super Thursday.”
While campaigning in Iowa in December 2019, a voter accused Biden of “selling access to the president,” to which Biden responded: “You’re a damn liar, man.” In the same exchange, Biden challenged the man to do push-ups and said, “Look, fat, look, here’s the deal.”
There are multiple examples of Biden lashing out, including, arguably, his most infamous interview with Charlemagne tha God, during which Biden said, “Well, I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
After Biden became president, the gaffes piled up. He repeated the false claim that his son Beau Biden died while serving in Iraq. He confused the names of countries and allied nations with hostile regimes. During speeches, he would go from whispering close to the microphone to angrily shouting his point across.
A Daily Caller review of official White House transcripts showed that from January to April 2024, the White House communications staff had to correct Biden’s public remarks at least 148 times.
Still, despite the many examples that seemed to prove the theories of Biden’s mental decline, Jean-Pierre, Vice President Kamala Harris and other prominent Democrats continued to claim these were exaggerated samples propped up by conservatives. They were “cheap fakes” or, as Harris told CNN about Biden’s debate performance, it was simply a “slow start.”
With Biden stepping down and Harris at the top of the Democrat ticket, Jean-Pierre’s response to Doocy’s inquiries about a coverup effort raises more questions than answers.
Suppose this was a free-will decision by Biden. Why were White House and campaign staff telling the American people that he was still running up to the moment the resignation letter dropped on X? If this isn’t a mental health decision, why can’t he continue campaigning? Lastly, if Biden’s cognitive decline played a part in his decision to step down, who knew what, and when did they know it? (ROOKE: The Media’s So Full Of Sh*t For Only Now Admitting Biden Is A Disaster)
Instead of answering these legitimate questions, Jean-Pierre claimed there wasn’t a conspiracy to cover up for Biden. According to her, Biden dropped out because he was a “selfless” American hero. It would have been better for the White House and the Harris campaign if Jean-Pierre had responded: “Look, it’s under investigation, and when we find out more, you’ll be the first to know.”
When a public official, who speaks on behalf of the president, tells the American people not to believe their lying eyes after years of uncovering mistruths from people in power, it only serves to add fuel to an already burning fire of distrust. Americans lived through the Russian collusion hoax, two failed impeachments of a sitting president, the Hunter laptop disinformation campaign and the mother of them all– COVID-19. Rather than an answer that quelled speculation of a highly coordinated coverup within the White House, Jean-Pierre threw out red meat to people starving for something to eat.
