Several vulnerable House Democrats representing swing districts held intimate meetings with former president Joe Biden at the White House during the same timeframe his senior aides were hard at work concealing his rapidly deteriorating mental acuity from the public. Most of those Democrats had nothing to say about Biden’s fitness to serve—even after his disastrous debate performance.
That includes Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D., Texas), who participated in three meetings with Biden at the White House in 2023 and 2024, including an eight-person meeting with the former president on June 4, 2024, archived visitor logs show. Biden’s rapidly deteriorating mental acuity was evident to the public and became impossible for the Democratic Party to ignore following his disastrous debate performance in late June. But Gonzalez told a different story to the public following his intimate meetings with the president.
Gonzalez praised Biden’s mental acuity in a Feb. 2024 statement, saying the former president "still seems pretty sharp and focused on the task of the day." And later, in July, Gonzalez attacked the first House Democrat to call on Biden to drop his reelection bid, saying it was "ironic" that the elderly Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D., Texas) had lost faith in Biden’s fitness to serve following his debate against Trump.
"We have a 77-year-old asking an 81-year-old not to run," said Gonzalez, who represents a toss-up district in southern Texas. "I really believe folks are jumping the gun."
The White House visitor logs—which show that 10 House Democrats in competitive districts attended meetings with Biden alongside fewer than 50 other attendees—have renewed significance as the Democratic Party and its media allies face a reckoning over their handling of Biden’s mental decline. That reckoning intensified over the weekend following the release of audio of Biden’s October 2023 interviews with special counsel Robert Hur, showing the former president slurring his words and struggling to recall basic details about formative events in his life—including the year his son died. And on Sunday, Biden’s personal office announced the former president was diagnosed with an "aggressive form" of prostate cancer.
Several doctors have questioned the timing of Biden’s Gleason grade 9 cancer diagnosis. Yale radiology professor Howard Forman said Sunday it was "inconceivable" that Biden’s doctors wouldn’t have detected the cancer while he was in office.
"Gleason grade 9 would have had an elevated PSA level for some time before this diagnosis. And he must have had a PSA test numerous times before," Forman posted on X. "This is odd."
Gonzalez’s office did not return a request for comment. He wasn’t the only vulnerable House Democrat to hold intimate meetings with Biden at the White House.
Rep. Donald Davis (D., N.C.)
Rep. Patrick Ryan (D., N.Y.)
Rep. Frank Mrvan (D., Ind.)
Rep. Steven Horsford (D., Nev.)
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D., Fla.)
Rep. Darren Soto (D., Fla.)
Rep. Emilia Sykes (D., Ohio)
Rep. Dina Titus (D., Nev.)
Rep. Gabriel Vasquez (D., N.M.)