By Charles C. W. Cooke
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Since the press first begrudgingly acknowledged that Joe
Biden was, in fact, too old to be president, and that this claim was not, in
fact, a “lie” or the result of “cheap fakes” or “ageism,” I have enjoyed
contrasting the facts that were eventually released with the extraordinarily
dishonest performance that Kamala Harris gave after Robert Hur published his
damning report. In light of an illuminating piece on the topic in today’s Wall
Street Journal, I shall do so again. Here’s the Journal:
To adapt the White House around the
needs of a diminished leader, they told visitors to keep meetings focused.
Interactions with senior Democratic lawmakers and some cabinet
members—including powerful secretaries such as Defense’s Lloyd Austin and
Treasury’s Janet Yellen—were infrequent or grew less frequent. Some legislative
leaders had a hard time getting the president’s ear at key moments, including
ahead of the U.S.’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan.
Senior advisers were often put into
roles that some administration officials and lawmakers thought Biden should
occupy, with people such as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, senior
counselor Steve Ricchetti and National Economic Council head Lael Brainard and
her predecessor frequently in the position of being go-betweens for the
president.
. . .
Presidents always have gatekeepers.
But in Biden’s case, the walls around him were higher and the controls greater,
according to Democratic lawmakers, donors and aides who worked for Biden and
other administrations. There were limits over who Biden spoke with, limits on
what they said to him and limits around the sources of information he consumed.
Throughout his presidency, a small
group of aides stuck close to Biden to assist him, especially when traveling or
speaking to the public. “They body him to such a high degree,” a person who
witnessed it said, adding that the “hand holding” is unlike anything other
recent presidents have had.
And here’s Harris, lying to the press:
Look at her. Just look at her. She knew. She was
in on it. And yet, despite knowing, and despite being in on it, she said all
that. Listen to the righteous indignation she spins up! Listen to her
moralistic language! It will never cease to amaze me.
And no, before someone says it, this wasn’t because Biden
“deteriorated later on.” The Journal places the start of the decline in
2021. It also confirms that Biden was a mess during the preparations for his
meeting with Hur — which apparently took three hours per day for a week:
In the fall of 2023, Biden faced a
major test when Hur, the special counsel, wanted to interview him. The
president wanted to do it, and his top aides felt that his willingness to sit
down with investigators set up a favorable contrast with Trump, who stonewalled
the probe into why classified documents appeared at Mar-a-Lago, according to
people familiar with the sessions.
The prep sessions took about three
hours a day for about a week ahead of the interview, according to a person
familiar with the preparation. During these sessions, Biden’s energy levels
were up and down. He couldn’t recall lines that his team had previously
discussed with him, the person said.
Astonishing.
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