Harris Vouches for Biden’s Mental Fitness as Lame-Duck President Faces Domestic, International Crises

Vice President Kamala Harris doubled down on vouching for President Joe Biden’s mental fitness Sunday, despite the president’s dropping out of the 2024 race after a disastrous debate performance. Biden most recently appeared alarmingly confused in the wake of Hurricane Helene, responding to an interviewer asking about relief efforts, “I was wondering what storm you’re talking about.”

A spokesperson for Harris’s campaign told Axios that she remains confident in Biden’s performance as he grapples with domestic and international crises in the final months of his presidency.

“Of course,” Harris spokesman Ian Sams said in response to Axios’s question on if she can “fully assure” Americans there is nothing to worry about regarding Biden’s “hour-by-hour performance.”

Harris also defended Biden when special counsel Robert Hur observed Biden’s mental decline during his investigation into whether Biden mishandled classified documents. Hur’s final report on the investigation was published in February, months before the presidential debate in June, and caused uproar among Democrats who believed his comments on Biden’s memory were out of line.

“Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur’s report notes, one of many striking assertions about Biden’s memory issues. Hur conducted a lengthy two-day interview with Biden for the investigation last fall.

As Biden’s political career teetered on the brink over the summer, Axios was one of the many mainstream publications to ferociously break stories about Biden’s apparent mental slip-ups behind the scenes and his inability to perform outside of the 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. time period.

Initially, Biden responded defiantly to pubic calls from Democratic lawmakers demanding he step aside from the presidential race after the debate in June inspired widespread panic about Biden’s mental acuity. Before he dropped out, polls consistently showed most Americans believed Biden was too old to be president and that his age was a top issue this election cycle.

President Biden’s public events schedule has been noticeably lackluster following his decision to drop out of the presidential race. But he continues to commit verbal miscues such as beginning his United Nations speech last month by saying “[w]elcome to Washington,” even though he was speaking in New York City. Biden has not acknowledged the reason he dropped out and has not been a major Harris campaign surrogate.

With a just a few months left until Biden departs the Oval Office, his administration is grappling with Hurricane Helene’s destruction across the southeastern U.S., particularly in western North Carolina, and Israel’s military campaign against its terrorist adversaries and the Iranian regime. When the hurricane struck, Biden’s mental state received fresh scrutiny because of his incoherent public remarks during a time when urgency and leadership are paramount.

Monday is the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 civilian massacre that prompted Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza against the terrorist organization. The anniversary will likely prompt an outpouring of anti-Israel demonstrations and antisemitic incidents.

To its north, Israel is fighting Hezbollah and recently killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and other top commanders. In retaliation for killing Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel last week that the Jewish state largely defended itself from with U.S. assistance. Israel is expected to respond forcefully to the Iranian attack in the coming days as it continues battling Iran’s terrorist proxies.