President Biden showed his age at a campaign reception in Manhattan on Wednesday — repeating statements about the 2017 Charlottesville riots and his decision to run for president in 2020 minutes apart and almost word for word.
During a speech at a rally hosted by billionaire real estate heiress Amy Goldman Fowler, the 80-year-old president recounted how he was enjoying retirement after two terms as Barack Obama’s vice president when “along came, in August 2017, Charlottesville, Virginia.
“You remember those people walking out of the fields with torches, with Nazi swastikas, holding them up, singing the same violent, antisemitic bile — the exact same bile — the bile that was sung — in Germany in the early 30 -an. And a young woman was killed. A young woman was killed.”
Biden went on to say, according to the official White House transcript, that “the former man [then-President Donald Trump] asked, ‘What do you think will happen?’ He is the sitting president. And he said, ‘I think there are some very good people on both sides.’ And I mean this sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, that’s when I decided I — I’m going to run again.”
After the president recounted how his extended family pressured him to challenge Trump, he then began telling the story again.
President Biden arrives for an event with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in New York on Wednesday.REUTERS
President Biden told the same story twice in 20 minutes during a speech at a Manhattan campaign rally. Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
“You know, you might remember that, you know, those people from Charlottesville, when they came out of the fields and carried that swastika, and remember them carrying torches and Ku – accompanied by the Ku Klux Klan. And besides, they has – there is white supremacy. Anyway, they make a big case about how terrible this is. And a young woman gets killed in the process.
“And my predecessor, as I said, was asked what he thought. He said, ‘There are some very good people on both sides.’ Well, that kept ringing in my head.
“So, I can’t, frankly, stay silent much longer,” Biden concluded. “So, I decided to compete. And it became – I ran because I thought everything this country stood for for the first time in my career.”
Biden told the audience about his decision to run for president following the 2017 Charlottesville riots. AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough
According to medical experts, repeating sentences, phrases, and even entire stories — although common in the elderly — may be an early sign of dementia or even an early warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease.
Biden routinely stumbles when making public statements, with allies chalking up the incident to a chronic stutter.
However, other incidents have led to accusations that the commander-in-chief is not cognitively fit to serve a second four-year term.
Biden struggled with a headset on Wednesday.AFP via Getty Images
In July, for example, Biden stared at a note card in his lap while welcoming Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the Oval Office rather than looking the head of state in the face.
In September last year, Biden asked Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) to stand and be recognized during the event, apparently forgetting that Walorski had died in a car accident the previous month – and that she had issued a statement marking his death.
In a recently published book about the Biden White House, author Franklin Foer revealed that the president had difficulty recalling people’s names quickly and would privately admit to feeling tired.
As many as 77% of Americans feel that Biden is too old to govern effectively if he wins a second term in office, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll released in late August.
However, the president has given no outward indication that he plans to cancel his 2024 run.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
