A New York Times columnist downplayed Democrats’ concerns over President Joe Biden’s declining health Wednesday as he announced his reelection bid this week, arguing the country does not need a fully-functioning president.
The Times’s David Leonhardt wrote in a newsletter on Wednesday, “Strange as it may sound, the American government can function without a healthy president.”
Leonhardt compared Biden, 80, to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, who had numerous health issues but was still about 20 years younger than Biden at the time. He also compared Biden to former President Ronald Reagan, who later announced he had Alzheimer’s Disease.
“In each case, White House aides, Cabinet secretaries and military leaders performed well despite the lack of a fully engaged leader,” Leonhardt argued.
Leonhardt’s argument goes against the far-left’s arguments that former President Donald Trump was mentally unstable and should have been removed from office.
The time to discuss trump's mental health is long overdue. We are all passengers in a car with a drunk driver, and we are all at RISK. https://t.co/x5Quwg2YNA
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) March 21, 2017
Not the Bee mocked the piece, saying, “The New York Times, the ‘truth to power’ people, the nation’s Paper of Record, is really suggesting that it doesn’t matter whether or not we elect a literal corpse for the Democrats.”
Leonhardt also argued that Biden’s penchant for using the wrong word or forgetting someone’s name is “not new” and blamed it on his stutter, writing that it “can make it seem as if he can’t remember words when in fact he is struggling to enunciate them.”
He argued that Biden has always been “gaffe-prone”:
He has also long been known for saying things that he probably shouldn’t.
“Biden living up to his gaffe-prone reputation,” read a Times headline in 2008, when he was only 65. That same year, Slate magazine wrote, “He misspeaks so often, it’s hardly news — and hardly damaging.”
While he acknowledged that “aging does seem to have exacerbated these issues,” he argued that the primary concern is convincing Democrat voters that it was not a big deal.
“Of course, there would be a simple way for Biden to address the concerns: He could spend more time speaking in public now and demonstrate his vigor. Instead, he and his aides have chosen the opposite approach,” he wrote.
Leonhardt then blamed Biden’s lack of media appearances on his staff. “Biden’s strategy of minimizing unscripted public appearances suggests that his staff believes the risk often isn’t worth the reward,” he wrote before quoting a Democratic Party official who appeared on a Times podcast.
“The man has done a good job,” said Elaine Kamarck, a political scientist and Democratic Party official. “So everybody’s sort of saying, ‘Okay, yeah, he’s old. Big deal.’ There are advantages that come with age, as well as the downsides.”
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