If you want a good indication that it is now open season on President Biden, just look at how quickly the New York Times coverage of his mental state has turned.
Today, the Times reports: “But by many accounts, as evidenced by video footage, observation and interviews, Mr. Biden is not the same today as he was even when he took office 3½ years ago.”
Emphasis mine, because if you’ll recall, a few weeks ago, when video clips emerged pointing to Biden’s mental decline, the Times went to bat for him, running a news story with the headline, “How Misleading Videos Are Trailing Biden as He Battles Age Doubts.” This followed the infamous press conference in which White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called them “cheap fakes.”
But that was back when Biden was assumed to be the Democratic nominee and still needed defending. Now that there is a full-court press to convince Biden to drop out of the race, supported by the Times editorial board, it’s fine to point to such clips as evidence of his decline.
To be fair, not all clips are created equal, and just because it’s true that Biden is clearly showing signs of age, it doesn’t mean that every single clip that goes viral is evidence of that. But if you look at the two stories, some of the same incidents are described as misleading in one article and as evidence of decline in the other.
This was the Times on June 21, describing one video showing Biden:
• Was escorted out of an event by his wife, Jill Biden, while President Emmanuel Macron of France stayed behind to greet veterans (a longer video showed Mr. Biden greeting veterans before his exit and then walking out with Dr. Biden)
In the latest story, the Times writes:
There was an awkward moment when Mr. Macron made sure the president got safely down the ramp, then came back up to shake all the veterans’ hands. Mr. Biden had been expected to stay for the handshakes.
Here’s the Times on June 21:
Driven by clips of Mr. Biden’s appearances at high-profile events commemorating Juneteenth and D-Day, posts on the social media platform X concerning his age and mental competence surged nearly 2,000 percent over the last two weeks compared with average activity, according to data from the firm PeakMetrics.
Some of the videos of Mr. Biden circulating during this year’s campaign are clearly manipulated to make him look old and confused. Others cut out vital context to portray him in a negative light, a process sometimes known as a “cheap fake” because it requires little expense or technological skill to create.
Here is the latest Times story:
The recent moments of disorientation generated concern among advisers and allies alike. He seemed confused at points during a D-Day anniversary ceremony in France on June 6. . . . On June 10, he appeared to freeze up at an early celebration of the Juneteenth holiday.
The turnaround says a lot about Biden’s standing as well as the dishonesty of the media.