From John Sexton.
When the brain starts going, it's not just the memory that diminishes. It's so-called "executive function," the part of your brain that imposes discipline on the other parts of your brain and dampens the temper and the emotions.
Our Chief Executive has lost his executive function.
During meetings with aides who are putting together formal briefings they'll deliver to Biden, some senior officials have at times gone to great lengths to curate the information being presented in an effort to avoid provoking a negative reaction.
"It's like, 'You can't include that, that will set him off,' or 'Put that in, he likes that,'" said one senior administration official. "It's a Rorschach test, not a briefing. Because he is not a pleasant person to be around when he's being briefed. It's very difficult, and people are scared shitless of him."
By the way, I'm tired of assholes like Murderin' Joe -- and Joe Biden himself -- saying this is just his "Irishman" coming out.
No, it's his dementia coming out. Bigots.
The Politico article, by the way, attempts to shift blame from Democrats in general, and blame just one tiny group: "the Inner Circle." The Cincinnati IRS Office of the Democrat Party, if you like.
Over the course of his presidency, Joe Biden's small clutch of advisers have built an increasingly protective circle around him, limiting his exposure to the media and outside advice -- an effort to manage public perceptions of the oldest person to ever hold the office and tightly control his political operation.
It's just a "small clutch of advisors," guys. Everybody else in the Media-Democrat Party is completely innocent.
The official said, "He doesn't take advice from anyone other than those few top aides, and it becomes a perfect storm because he just gets more and more isolated from their efforts to control it."
Just a "few top aides" are responsible for the Big Lie.
Every other Media-Democrat operative is as shocked as you are. Swearsies!
Biden's family also blames "top aides."
Even the president's family, which gathered Sunday at Camp David for a previously scheduled portrait session with photographer Annie Leibovitz and private conversations about where to go from here, was pointing the finger at long-standing members of the senior team: senior adviser Anita Dunn, one of several proponents of the earlier debate, and former chief of staff Ron Klain, who oversaw the week of debate prep at Camp David. But Biden himself told those aides he wasn't blaming them, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
Jill Biden had no idea that her husband was senile! "Top aides" restrict her access to her husband, you know.
If this news sounds familiar to you, that's because a year ago Axios' Alex Thompson, who I have to admit has not shied away from covering this story and is still on top of it, wrote a piece called "Old Yeller: Biden's Private Fury."
I wrote about it at the time. I'll direct you to Sexton's article to read it. Here are the opening sentences:
In public, President Biden likes to whisper to make a point. In private, he's prone to yelling.
Behind closed doors, Biden has such a quick-trigger temper that some aides try to avoid meeting alone with him. Some take a colleague, almost as a shield against a solo blast.
The president's admonitions include: "God dammit, how the fk don't you know this?!," "Don't fking bullsh*t me!" and "Get the f**k out of here!" -- according to current and former Biden aides who have witnessed and been on the receiving end of such outbursts.
Why it matters: The private eruptions paint a more complicated picture of Biden as a manager and president than his carefully cultivated image as a kindly uncle who loves Aviator sunglasses and ice cream.
Is it possible that Biden actually believes that inflation under Trump was 9%, because his staffers have lied to him about this, to avoid his demented fury?
I know this syndrome. I experienced it with my dad before he passed. It was not his "inner Irishman" coming out -- he had Alzheimer's. He was raging at every nurse in the hospital for everything.
And by the way: He liked ice cream at the end. And milk.
I don't know if that's common with people with dementia, or just a coincidence.
And in a way, I did see "two different people" with my dad. Sometimes he'd be well behaved and sweet. Sometimes he'd fly off the wall in absolute rage.
No, he was not fit to be President of the United States. You should not have to hide upsetting news from the Commander-in-Chief depending on whether he was "fuzzy" or "in one of his moods" or not.
That said, Biden should definitely stay in the race. He's the only one who can save our precious democracy from Der Drumpfenfuhrer.
Bill Ackman
@BillAckman
As much as last night was an indictment of the Democratic Party for misleading party members and the country about the mental acuity and health of the president, the media deserve far more derision and scorn.
I and others were repeatedly criticized by the media for questioning the competency of the president. Among other false accusations, I was accused of spreading misleading videos which clearly showed Biden's deterioration.
Do you remember the heavily excerpted and edited @POTUS Biden @60Minutes interview where the interviewer covered for the president by saying he was 'very tired?'
@60Minutes knew.
The @nytimes knew.
@CNN knew.
@MSNBC knew.
Left wing media have had total and complete access to the president, his staff, and his administration.
They all knew, but they told you otherwise. They outright lied to you.
When Robert Hur, the special counsel who deposed the president, said that the president was not fit to stand trial and therefore chose not to bring charges, the media described him as a tool of the Republican Party and character assassinated him.
When the @WSJ recently published a several-thousand-word, carefully researched, front page piece on the president's mental and physical health, it was described by left wing media as outright propaganda.
Now consider who has been feeding you propaganda.
A favored technique of some of the most evil leaders in history was to mislead the people by constantly repeating the Big Lie.
The Big Lie is so audacious that people accept it as truth because it is repeated so often that how can it be that something so important and material could be an outright falsehood?
In this case the Big Lie was our president's fitness for office, let alone a second term.
A media organization is not supposed to be a branch of the Democratic Party.
The media have a profound obligation to tell the truth to the American people, particularly about something as critical for the country as the president's mental and physical health.
People very close to me, my closest family and friends, trusted the media on Biden until the @CNN commentators finally owned up to the truth about Biden last night.
For months I have been accused by many friends and family of being misled by an @X-based 'right wing echo chamber.'
The sad reality is that one of our most important institutions, the so-called 'Fourth Estate,' fourth only after the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners, has destroyed any remaining credibility it has.
Consider how your perception of @POTUS Biden and @realDonaldTrump has been manipulated.
The media can no longer save itself.
A suggestion. Rely on empirical data as much as possible. Listen to what someone actually said, rather than a headline summary or article about what someone said.
Get your news from people who have a track record of telling the truth, people who do so at significant personal cost like whistleblowers.
I follow broad constituencies on @X on multiple issues. That has led me closer to the truth. Citizen journalism has been a much more accurate representation of reality.
Thank you @elonmusk for saving this platform. It gives us a fighting chance to save our democracy.