White House Seeks to Clarify its Clarification of Biden’s Health

The above headline would be a great title for the Babylon Bee except for one thing. It’s true.

Revisions and More Revisions

The Wall Street Journal comments on The Tight-Lipped Approach to Biden’s Health Disclosures

An opaque picture of President Biden’s health has emerged since his disastrous debate performance as a result of shifting accounts of his medical care by the White House and the president’s own refusal to undergo more testing.

Since the debate, where Biden at times struggled to complete his thoughts and often appeared to freeze with his mouth agape, the White House has rejected calls for greater transparency about the 81-year-old president’s health.

On at least three occasions since the debate, the White House has had to correct or clarify official statements about Biden’s medical treatment. Most recently, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said a January visit by neurologist Kevin Cannard to the White House had been for the president’s annual physical, after telling reporters earlier in the day that the visit wasn’t related to Biden’s care.

On Tuesday, the White House said that the neurologist, Kevin Cannard, had examined the president as part of his annual physical on Jan. 17, the same day that Biden’s performance in a meeting to secure Ukraine funding raised concerns among some lawmakers about the president’s acuity. During the meeting that day, Biden moved slowly, spoke softly and read from notes, deferring frequently to other lawmakers and staffers, some people who attended the meeting said. Cannard’s appointment was scheduled five days in advance, visitor logs show. The White House said there was no connection between the meeting and the exam.

New answers
On Tuesday, the White House corrected a previous statement on the Jan. 17 visit by Cannard, the neurologist, to the White House. In a briefing that afternoon, Jean-Pierre told reporters that the Jan. 17 visit by Cannard wasn’t related to care for the president. Later that day, Jean-Pierre contacted the Associated Press, whose reporter had asked about the visit, to say that the visit was in fact for the president’s physical, one of three times she said Cannard had seen Biden for a physical.

Later that day, the White House released a letter from O’Connor in which he confirmed that Cannard had examined Biden for his annual physicals and said the president hadn’t seen a neurologist outside of those examinations.

Even that letter left some questions unanswered about why Cannard had visited the White House residence clinic—intended for the first family and senior-most staff as determined by the Defense Department—eight times if he had only examined the president three times. Bates said Thursday that Cannard only went to the residence clinic once, even though visitor logs show he signed in there on eight separate days.

George Stephanopoulos Interview

Let’s review some pertinent parts of the Stephanopoulos Biden Interview as noted in my post “It’s a Biden Question” a Musical Tribute to the Stephanopoulos Interview

Stephanopoulos: I know you said you have an ongoing assessment. Have you had a full neurological and cognitive evaluation?

Biden: I’ve had– I get a full neurological test everyday with me. And I’ve had a full physical. I had, you know, I mean, I– I’ve been at Walter Reed for my physicals. I mean–uhm yes, the answer.

Stephanopoulos: I– I know your doctor said he consulted with a neurologist. I– I guess I’m asking– a slightly different question. Have you had the specific cognitive tests, and have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination?

Biden: No. No one said I had to. No one said. They said I’m good.

Stephanopoulos: Would you be willing to undergo an independent medical evaluation that included neurological and cognit– cognitive tests and release the results to the American people?

Biden: Look. I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world. Not– and that’s not hi– sounds like hyperbole, but we are the essential nation of the world.

Stephanopoulos: … the American people have been watching, yet their concerns about your age and your health are growing. So that’s why I’m asking — to reassure them, would you be willing to have the independent medical evaluation?

Biden: Watch me between– there’s a lotta time left in this campaign. There’s over 125 days. [Yes, we watched you repeatedly duck very pointed tough questions]

Stephanopoulos: So the answer–

Biden: They’ll make a decision.

Stephanopoulos: Right—the answer right now is, no, you– you don’t want to do that right now.

Biden: Well, I’ve already done it.

The Price of Lying and Coverups

The above transcript is of someone who is either delusional or a liar or both.

It’s not recent either. It’s been ongoing for four years.

The coverups have finally taken a toll. People now see the truth: They’ve been lied to for years by the president and a Press willing to lie for him.

WSJ comments on Biden’s Frailty and the Political Price of Insincerity

How did they let it get this far? How did Democratic power brokers and progressive media personalities—groups not known for their indifference to winning elections—wait until July 2024 to urge President Biden not to run for re-election?

Any mildly observant person could see four years ago that Mr. Biden had declined further than a commander in chief should. These pages noted Mr. Biden’s diminished state during and after his 2020 campaign. In the 2012 debate with Paul Ryan, the editorial board remarked on Nov. 19, 2020, Mr. Biden “was aggressive and confident. In 2020, in the rare times he speaks off the cuff without a teleprompter, he looks more tentative, as if grasping for an argument or words that he knows are around here somewhere.”

Democrats disregarded this and 10,000 similar observations because they took them to be insincere, and the political left has become so accustomed to insincerity as not to recognize its opposite. On the left—particularly in the New York Times and other elite outlets—substantive complaints are routinely presented as procedural or ethical ones. Rather than make a straightforward argument that a person or policy is wrong on the merits, elected Democrats, following the media’s lead, typically raise technical or otherwise secondary objections they plainly don’t care about.

Having convinced themselves that the president’s infirmity was a right-wing invention, Democrats find themselves in the unenviable position of having to acknowledge the truth of what their opponents have been saying for years. The whole mess might have been avoided if Democrats had credited their critics with sincerity.

The Lie Is Disclosed

One cannot put a disclosed lie back in the bottle.

The press has been forced to admit Biden’s This lie, and now they are in a race to protect their own reputations.

As a result, the Left-wing media is now in competition to unsweep the dirt it swept under the rug out of fear of losing more readership.

Unprecedented Setup

Biden now has to deal with an openly hostile press. This is an unprecedented setup for Democrats in general and Biden specifically.

There are two things I am sure of: 1) More clarifications will be needed. And 2) The press will be hostile until Biden drops out.

When is that?

Is Biden Bluffing or Do Democrats Have a Defendable Strategy?

I discussed the possibility of a Biden bluff (Nate Silver’s theory), and a purposeful timeline strategy (my theory), in Is Biden Bluffing or Do Democrats Have a Defendable Strategy?

If Biden does not drop out before or during the live convention, my theory will be proven false.

There is no way other than direct admission to prove either theory correct. However, if Biden drops out on the schedule I propose, or during the live convention, it is strong evidence my theory is the correct one.

I have specific timelines for two events. See above post for details.