I used to think that Joe Biden’s presidential library should be built on the lip of an active volcano.
To me, it would symbolize that he and his team knew that the return of Donald Trump to the White House was a constant threat to the future of the United States of America and the peace and stability of the free world, and yet they pretended nothing was happening, and did almost nothing to thwart it. That includes Attorney General Merrick Garland’s half-assed prosecution of Trump’s criminal cases. “Slow” doesn’t begin to describe Garland’s behavior; “stationary” is more like it. If the Justice Department had gone any slower in attempting to bring Trump’s crimes to light, they would have been going backwards.
Now, stories are starting to emerge about how Biden’s family and staff worked to cover up evidence of his physical and mental decline, until the disastrous June 2024 debate demonstrated that the president was falling apart:
In a new book, Joe Biden’s former White House chief of staff paints a devastating picture of the then US president’s mental and physical state before the debate with Donald Trump that sent his 2024 campaign into a tailspin, resulting in his relinquishing the Democratic nomination to Kamala Harris.
According to Klain, it turned out that Biden “didn’t know what Trump had been saying and couldn’t grasp what the back and forth was”; left preparation and fell asleep by the pool; obsessed about foreign leaders, saying “these guys say I’m doing a great job as president so I must be a great president”; “didn’t really understand what his argument was on inflation”; and “had nothing to say about a second term other than finish the job.” (The Guardian, UK)
I never much trusted Joe Biden. The first time I ever saw Joe Biden on TV, I was a little kid, and he was being interviewed on NBC’s “Today” Show about his presidential campaign. It would have had to have been 1987.
What I remember most clearly was that he said to the interviewer, “I will be the next president of the United States.”
Not, “when I am,” or “if I am elected.” I will be the next president of the United States.
Even as a grade-schooler, that struck me as a shocking thing to say.
Within a few weeks, his campaign imploded when it was revealed that he’d plagiarized his campaign speech from British politician Neil Kinnock.
As I got older and began to pay attention to politics, I heard stories about his temper, arrogance, and enormous ego. I watched him grill Anita Hill after Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court. I read stories about back-room deals that he cut on behalf of predatory banks and credit-card lenders (some people called him “the Senator from MBNA,” MBNA being a big Delaware-based credit-card company that sometimes doubled and tripled people’s interest rates without warning).
During his time as Obama’s vice president, he seemed to have mellowed. The Onion depicted him as an aging, hard-drinking surfer, waxing his Trans-Am in the White House driveway. Somehow, he morphed into America’s cool uncle. But I still didn’t trust him.
So when he ran for president again in 2020, he would have been my 12th or 13th favorite choice in the Democratic Party.
I was pleasantly surprised during his first year in office. It did, indeed, seem like a kinder, gentler Joe Biden — to quote another former president.
Then, during his second year, Biden seemed to revert to type — selfish, egotistical, and a little bit nasty and sarcastic.
That’s the guy I remembered. Not Cool Uncle Joe.
Of course, during his final two years in office, he seemed to disappear from public entirely. According to another new book, Biden was “a shell of himself” by 2023 (Vanity Fair), and everyone around him knew it.
Rumors about his decline were rampant; Republicans kept pointing out that Biden rarely spoke to reporters or held press conferences, implying that something was seriously wrong with him. Democrats replied that the Republicans were engaged in a dirty tricks campaign of character assassination; and certainly, that’s what it was, but it also apparently was more accurate than anyone knew.
His staff and family knew that he was in no shape to run for a second term. But they kept it from the public until it was too late.
And now, here we are, on the verge of an economic collapse, widespread civil unrest and the dissolution of worldwide alliances that have endured for more than 70 years.
Not only did Biden’s staff cover up his mental and physical decline, they actively worked to undermine Vice President Kamala Harris, so that when he finally dropped out of the race — much too late, everyone agrees — they had already fatally crippled her attempt to beat Trump.
Anyway, I no longer think Biden’s library should be built on the lip of an active volcano.
I now think it should be built over an active septic drainage field — a fitting monument to the hubris of a man whose shortsightedness has left the entire country sinking into the muck.