Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Sunday that Democrats did not mislead Americans about President Biden’s mental acuity, despite reports showing that Mr. Biden’s mental fitness was lacking even before he was elected.

“Look, we didn’t,” Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” when asked about Americans who feel they were misled about the president’s mental fitness.

“Let’s look at President Biden. He’s had an amazing record,” Mr. Schumer said. “The legislation we passed, one of the most significant groups of legislation since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, putting in 235 judges, a record. And he’s a patriot. He’s a great guy.”

“When he stepped down [as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee], he did it on his own because he thought it was better not only for the Democratic Party, for America,” he said. “We should all salute him.”

Mr. Schumer said he speaks to Mr. Biden regularly and described the president’s mental acuity as “great.”

“It’s fine. It’s as good as it’s been over the years,” he said. “All this right-wing propaganda that his mental acuity has declined is wrong.”

Reports last month detailed just how much White House staff had to adapt “around the needs of a diminished leader.” Even campaign staffers before Mr. Biden was elected had to adapt to his diminished energy levels.

Meetings, even with some key Cabinet secretaries whom he should have met with frequently, were occurring less often than normal. Senior advisers were told to step up and take on roles that should have been undertaken by the president.

One person familiar with the circumstances told the Wall Street Journal that aides “body him to such a high degree” and the “hand holding” was unlike anything any other president had.

Officials started to notice during the first few months in the Biden White House that he couldn’t handle long meetings and would make mistakes if they went on too long. Meetings started being scheduled around when the president was more cognitive, meaning they would start later in the day. Meetings would be canceled altogether if the president was having a bad day.

Mr. Biden, 82, will be the oldest president at the end of his term. He was the oldest person to be inaugurated president four years ago when he was 78.

CBS News reporter Jan Crawford called the most underreported story of 2024 Mr. Biden’s “obvious cognitive decline.”

“Undercovered and underreported that would be, to me, Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable in the televised debate,” Ms. Crawford said late last month on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Unquestioned.”

“Yet he insisted that he could still run for president,” she said. “We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats.”

“It could have changed the scope of the entire election,” she said.

• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.