A year after the transcripts of two infamous interviews between then-President Joe Biden and Special Counsel Robert Hur were released, and nine days after a May 7 Politico report revealing that audio of the exchanges would be made public, Axios has published the recordings, and they confirm what most of us already knew: Biden was – and is – suffering from major cognitive impairment.
At the outset, it is important to note that Axios is not an impartial player. As Politico reports, its release of the audio serves another purpose:
“The audio’s disclosure comes days before the release of ‘Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,’ the book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson. Thompson was one of two authors on the Axios report Friday on the audio.”
And one ought to note that Tapper’s efforts smack of a coverup of his own participation in the original coverup, whereby he fully pushed the narrative that Biden was fine, and he pooh-poohed those who noticed Amtrak Joe’s troubles.
Finally, one might want to note that this “engage in journalistic malfeasance for a political goal, then cover it up for political reasons” is one of most noticeable and offensive habits of the left-leaning pop media, and has been for decades.
But the core of the story – that being whether Mr. Biden was functionally capable of being President, and whether he made his own decisions – looms even larger than the pop media duplicity and Tapper’s new, chameleonic role in covering it up.
In October 2023, former then-President Biden participated in five-hours of interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur regarding the mishandling of classified documents found at Biden’s Delaware home and former office. Audio obtained by Axios, released on May 16, reveals Biden struggling with memory lapses, long pauses, and slurred speech, raising concerns about his mental acuity at age 80. The recordings, from two sessions on October 8 and 9, capture Biden failing to recall key details, such as the year his son Beau died (2015), when he left the vice presidency (2017), and Donald Trump’s election (2016). These struggles align with Hur’s February 2024 report, which described Biden as a:
“sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,”
…a characterization that influenced Hur’s decision not to prosecute Biden for improper document retention, citing jurors’ likely sympathy.
The audio sheds light on why the Biden Administration blocked its release, asserting executive privilege and labeling it “constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials,” an ironic term, coming from an administration that already had shown that its President and VP flagrantly disregarded the Constitution and should not have held office.
Of course, most Democrats, including then-Vice President Kamala Harris, criticized Hur’s report as politically motivated, while Biden’s team insisted he was “sharp.”
The recordings blow away that narrative, and validate concerns about Biden’s cognitive decline, bolstering Republican accusations of a White House cover-up.
Making that point about Biden’s troubles – even as he pushes it into the realm of ahistorical hyperbole, GOP Lawyer Mike Davis puffed:
“The Biden White House and its Cabinet engaged in the biggest cover-up and scandal in American political history by hiding this.”
One likely could think of a hundred other scandals -- or, more pointedly, the year-after-year assaults on constitutional limits engaged by every President since Washington -- to conclude that there are greater Executive, Legislative, and Judicial crimes to remember.
But the initial Axios release has raised eyebrows, and the Trump administration plans to release the full interview, escalating the controversy, and, likely, fueling the fire and ire of Senators and House members who already want further investigations.
Related: Biden's Cognitive Issues and Autopen Use Question Executive Order Validity
Already, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is calling for an FBI investigation. Appearing May 16 on the FoxNews Sean Hannity Show with fill-in host Jason Chaffetz, and prompted by Chaffetz to recall the fact that numerous members of the Biden Administration tried to either hide the truth or engaged in attacks of those delivering the truth, Blackburn replied:
“Of course, they did, because they were running the country by committee. We all continued to hear that Biden was not the one that was making decisions. But yes, indeed, this is something that needs our attention and our investigation, both the House and the Senate. It also is going to need investigative work by the Department of Justice and the FBI. And, Jason, we’ve got a lot that we’re looking at. But the American people voted on November 5 to change how things were done. They gave a mandate to Donald Trump. They want to put an end to these two tiers of justice. They want to put an end to having government weaponized against people.”
That remains to be seen in practice within the current administration and the majority of GOP members in both Houses.
In fact, many questions swirl around the Trump Administration, the Senate, and the House when it comes to following-up on major constitutional matters, and GOP House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) also is stressing the need to dig into this scandal in order to discern just how much or how little Biden was involved with day-to-day decisions and actually engaging in constitutional activity.
Appearing on the same FoxNews program, Comer noted the obvious cognitive problems revealed by the audio, wondered who actually was making decisions for Biden, and more, telling Chaffetz:
"Clearly, from that interview, which was many, many months prior to the heavy use of the autopen, Joe Biden wasn't capable of making decisions. He wasn't coherent."
And Comer’s concern ranges wider, to very serious questions about Biden’s signatures on legislation, pardons, and Executive Orders.
As FoxNews’ Alex Schemmel notes:
“Earlier Friday, Comer announced a new investigation trying to uncover who gave the orders to use the autopen. According to Comer, among other important things, the autopen tool was used to grant presidential pardons to Biden's family members.”
The concerns are clear, justified, and, similar to concerns about the ever-growing breaches of constitutional barriers committed by so many in Washington, likely will see no correction.
Which is a troubling reality to face, and should not be accepted.
The fact that most unconstitutional and unethical activity in DC never stops, never is rectified, and, instead, becomes part of a ceaseless political hum, a constant, ever-louder drone, casts a shadow over all of these questions about Biden’s cognition.
Because, even when he was a Senator and a Vice-President, he, like most in DC, did not abide by his own sworn oath to the rules of the nation.
That is sufficient cause to raise American concern and action, rather than acquiescence and servitude. The issue of Biden’s cognition is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
The bigger matter is the abject dismissal of Natural Rights in an era of evident United States old age.
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