Democrats are publicly and privately panicking over President Biden’s reelection prospects in the wake of a special counsel report that describes Mr. Biden as too old and feeble-minded to be prosecuted for carelessly and illegally stashing classified records in his home and office.
Former presidential advisers for Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have long warned that Mr. Biden’s mental acuity is slipping and could make it harder for him to win reelection in November. Most polls back up the threat.
The special counsel report released Thursday ramped up those concerns by chronicling the president’s mental decline in black and white, such as Mr. Biden’s inability to recall when he served as vice president or when his son Beau died.
Mr. Biden, 81, responded by delivering an angry rant in a prime-time address, displaying other memory lapses on live television, such as confusing the identity of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi with the president of Mexico and trailing off when he tried to recall where he obtained a set of rosary beads commemorating his late son. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46.
Former Clinton adviser Paul Begala summed up the way many Democrats likely felt after Mr. Biden’s disastrous day.
“I slept like a baby,” Mr. Begala joked on CNN. “I woke up every two hours and wet the bed. This is terrible for Democrats. And anybody with a functioning brain knows that.”
SEE ALSO: Poll: 86% of voters say Biden ‘too old’ to serve second term
The panic manifested on Sunday in Democrats’ feverish defense of Mr. Biden’s mental fitness.
Sen. Christopher A. Coons of Delaware, a close ally of Mr. Biden, blamed news media for the overwhelming number of voters who think Mr. Biden is too old for another term.
“If press coverage focuses relentlessly on things that don’t represent Joe Biden’s real body of work, you can push toward that kind of result,” Mr. Coons said on ABC’s “This Week.”
He insisted that Mr. Biden is a “man who is sharp, who is on top of his game, who knows what’s going on in the Middle East and around the world.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, California Democrat, said on CNN that he saw the president twice in the past two weeks and had conversations with him, and Mr. Biden was “completely mentally sharp.”
Over the weekend, the White House attempted to turn the criticism of the president’s diminished memory into a positive by saying it showed Republicans were “afraid” of Mr. Biden.
SEE ALSO: Trump still fights off ‘pit bull’ prosecutor as Biden walks away from documents case
Still, Democrats’ unease about the top of the ticket was undeniable.
It would be impossible to restart the Democratic primary campaign and let voters choose a replacement for Mr. Biden on the November ballot because the deadline for ballot access has passed in most states. Mr. Biden has won every primary so far and is on track to secure the nomination in March.
Anonymous Democrats on Capitol Hill and at least one former Biden administration official suggested in media reports that someone else should run against Donald Trump, 77, the Republican presidential front-runner, even if it means Democratic Party officials replace Mr. Biden in August at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
That’s a long shot.
Next in line is Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, who polls poorly. Choosing another candidate, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, 56, who might fare better against Mr. Trump, risks angering the party’s critical base of Black voters.
Democratic Party strategist Hank Sheinkopf predicts Mr. Biden won’t budge from the ballot.
“Democratic insiders may be complaining because they’re looking at poll numbers seeing young people running away,” Mr. Sheinkopf said. “But the reality is they’re not going to take on the president of the United States, because you want to pay a price politically? You’re going against the most powerful person in the party.”
On Friday, White House officials hammered special counsel Robert Hur’s 345-page report, which concluded there could be no viable case against Mr. Biden over his stash of classified documents.
The report prompted Republican accusations of a double standard. Mr. Trump is facing criminal charges for taking and keeping classified material at his Mar-a-Lago home despite his assertion that he had the power to declassify information as the commander in chief.
Mr. Hur concluded that Mr. Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” after he was vice president in the Obama administration and dating back to his time as a senator. Still, he said, it doesn’t establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mr. Hur rejected prosecuting Mr. Biden for several reasons. The most politically damaging was his difficulty proving the president intended to break the law because of his inability to recall key facts.
Mr. Hur wrote that Mr. Biden “would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
An ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 86% of voters, including 73% of Democrats, think Mr. Biden is too old to serve another term as president.
For Mr. Trump, 62%, including 35% of Republican voters, think he is too old.
“The game here is that Donald Trump will be a more flawed person and candidate, and Joe Biden will be a less flawed person and a better candidate,” Mr. Sheinkopf said. “I predict Biden will remain the nominee. He’s got a shot to win. He’s got a shot to lose.”
• Ramsey Touchberry and Alex Miller contributed to this report.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.