Woodward Book: Joe Biden’s “Dementia” Tracked His Stress about Hunter Biden
Axios’ Chief Dick Pic Correspondent, Alex Thompson, did something funny yesterday.
He got very aroused because Bob Woodward’s book describes that donors began expressing concerns about Joe Biden’s mental fitness after a fundraiser in June 2023.
Biden, who was 80, had flown in from Washington earlier that day. A donor acknowledged he had probably woken up very early but appeared tired. “He could not wait to sit down and only took two pre-arranged questions.” He carried a handful of note cards with the answers printed out, but even then seemed to wander off point.
But by later in the day — the following passage, not marked by Thompson, described — donors witnessed the opposite. Biden was energetic. He wouldn’t sit down for two hours.
Thompson did, however, mark a description of events eight days later in June where donors said he couldn’t complete a sentence.
Thompson treated this like a smoking gun. This was proof that Biden’s team was hiding his dementia!!!
But coming as it did from Axios’ Chief Dick Pic Correspondent, it was instead a confession.
That’s because any good Dick Pic Correspondent like Thompson would have started his perusal of Woodward’s book by consulting the parts about Hunter Biden; everyone in DC knows you start reading a Woodward book with the index! And right in the middle of a discussion about Biden’s decision to step down in July, there’s a discussion about Hunter.
Blinken knew Hunter’s struggles had derailed Biden emotionally much, much more than any outsider or the public realized. Another of Blinken’s friends called this “the real war,” the battle that affected Biden more than Ukraine, more than Israel. The guilt was overwhelming. If he were not president, “my beautiful boy,” “my little boy” would not be under the crushing scrutiny of all the investigations, he’d say. Biden was heartbroken.
In June 2023, Biden was showing what people viewed as signs of impairment, but also wild swings from hour to hour, on June 19. In June 2024, Biden had a disastrous debate performance, seemingly confirming real dementia.
And yet, as Tony Blinken described it, what was really going on, what the public didn’t realize, is that Biden was wracked with guilt in knowing that even as Hunter was trying to stay sober, Biden’s political adversaries — abetted by Chief Dick Pic Correspondents like Alex Thompson — had made private citizen and recovering addict Hunter Biden their singular focus, their means to find scandal with Joe Biden (before they moved onto marking just the passages of a book that described him struggling at fundraisers).
The connection between Biden’s worst moments and Hunter’s plight should have been clear to someone like Thompson.
It was to me.
The day after the disastrous debate, I laid out how much stress Biden had been under, pointing specifically to the toll of the deliberately humiliating trial earlier that month and the pending, even more humiliating one.
- His kid was convicted in a trial that not only laid bare what a cost Joe’s political career has been on his family, but that would, without question, never have happened if his son were not the son of President Joe Biden
And the passage that Thompson treats like a smoking gun shows that on the day prosecutors first floated that there was an ongoing investigation (and, as became clear in retrospect, the first day the new prosecutors who would renege on the plea deal got added to the case), Biden was a mess. But later in the day, when the plea deal had seemingly been finalized, Biden was great.
Here is Chris Clark’s declaration, which describes how, on June 19, Hunter’s team thought they had reassurances that the entire ordeal would soon be over.
35. On June 19, 2023, at 2:53 PM EST, after I had a phone call with AUSA Hanson indicating I would do so, I emailed AUSA Hanson a proposed press statement to accompany the public release of both Informations that read, in part, “I can confirm that the five-year long, extensive federal investigation into my client, Hunter Biden, has been concluded through agreements with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware.” (Emphases added.) A true and correct copy of Chris Clark’s June 19, 2023, email to AUSA Hanson is attached hereto as Exhibit P.
36. Shortly after that email, I had another phone call with AUSA Hanson, during which AUSA Hanson requested that the language of Mr. Biden’s press statement be slightly revised. She proposed saying that the investigation would be “resolved” rather than “concluded.” I then asked her directly whether there was any other open or pending investigation of Mr. Biden overseen by the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office, and she responded there was not another open or pending investigation. Thereafter, at 4:18 PM EST that day, I sent AUSA Hanson a revised statement that read: “With the announcement of two agreements between my client, Hunter Biden, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, it is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved.” (Emphases added.) The new statement revised the language from “concluded” to “resolved,” a stylistic change that meant the same thing. A true and correct copy of Chris Clark’s June 19, 2023, email to AUSA Hanson is attached hereto as Exhibit Q. [Clark’s italics, my bold]
Days later, when disgruntled IRS agents and Chief Dick Pic Correspondents like Thompson began to claw away at the plea again, Biden was once again a wreck.
It’s absolutely true that Woodward’s book describes events a year ago when donors viewed Biden to be a wreck. It’s also true that Woodward provides the alternate explanation that Chief Dick Pic Correspondents should immediately recognize — but won’t, because they’re trying to drum up scandal somewhere else now. One of the things making Biden a wreck was the guilt of knowing his son had become enemy number one as a way to harm him personally.
I’m not saying Biden is not old. I’m not denying that Biden had difficulties advocating for his policies. Harris has done a far better job at doing so.
I am saying that the pack of rabid Dick Pic Sniffers who had spent the first two weeks of June wallowing in just how humiliating prosecutors had made that trial, for the entire Biden family, somehow forgot about what they themselves had described as an immense strain on the entire family a few weeks later when Biden bolloxed that debate. And now Chief Dick Pic Correspondent Alex Thompson can’t even recognize the significance of that date, June 19, 2023, when Biden was having wild emotional swings.
When Vice President Harris answered Hallie Jackson’s question that similarly tried to drum up a smoking gun about Kamala covering up Biden’s purported decline, Harris suggested that Jackson might ask Biden if there was another reason, beyond simple mental impairment, why he dropped out of the race.
Deciding to end the public targeting of his son could well be one reasons.
Like Justin Trudeau, I’m not a medical expert, but I’ve seen several family members develop Alzheimer’s disease. My anecdotal experience suggests that both physical (from unrelated ailments) and emotional distress both worsen symptoms. It’s also important to note that progression isn’t necessarily linear.
It’s much more likely if there’s a family history.
But stress can really mess you up.
I believe it’s “Hallie” Jackson.
Yup. Just saw that. Wrote most of this post on a pre-dawn flight.
Your last sentence then begs the question, if that’s true, then why did Team Trump act SO surprised when he pulled the trigger on actually doing that? Because it seems to me that what happened is the logical conclusion of a prolonged emotional nightmare for Biden. I am sure he had reached his breaking point.
Or is this like King George not understanding why George Washington decided not to run for a third term? Autocratic despots just cannot comprehend voluntarily giving up power?
I just don’t understand folks like that. I’ve always thought someone on the large D Democratic side was going to have to make a huge personal sacrifice to ensure that small d democracy still has a chance in this country. Thankfully, Joe Biden is the kind of person willing to bear that cross. We owe him much gratitude.
Team Trump was disappointed. They thought they had Biden in the kill zone. He was rounded up, cornered, in their sights. Then just like that, before they could take another shot, their prey was gone.
The prey was gone…
…and the hunter became the hunted.
When we fight we win and VP Harris has come out strong!
Beyond King George, I can’t see Trump not clinging onto the nomination, whether to cling onto the possibility of shutting down investigations, pardoning himself, and/or pardoning family members. That’s also a likely explanation for their surprise.
And now I’m once again wondering why Trump didn’t pardon himself on the way out of office.
Trump cannot imagine a father giving up a race because of the stress and problems it creates for his family.
He couldn’t imagine it, so he was surprised when it happened.
Trump must never have watched the West Wing episode where President Bartlet invoked the 25th Amendment ceded his power to the Republican Speaker of the House for the good of the country because he could not function during the terrorist kidnapping of his daughter. No parallels whatsoever.
Marcy: Harris suggested that Jackson might ask Biden if there was another reason, beyond simple mental impairment, why he dropped out of the race.
That part of the interview begins at about 19:12 at the linked video.
Yes. Jackson has decided that she just knows why Biden chose to leave the race.
She first says it is “largely because” of the debate, and later it becomes definite: “that’s the reason”.
HARRIS handles it really well.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are true leaders. Trump is a fraud. A fascist. A sadist. A coward. A flop. He feeds off exploitation. He has no comprehension of or interest in leadership. And he couldn’t imagine Biden would do something that Trump, himself, could never do. And he definitely doesn’t care about his sons in the way Biden cares about Hunter.
We owe much gratitude to Joe Biden and to Kamala Harris. I am so thankful they are fighting so hard for democracy and for the Constitution. They excel at leadership.
In a 2019 interview with Jonathan Capehart, this is what Kamala Harris said about leadership:
“There is a thing about leadership, which is you have to have the courage to do things that are in the best interest of the people you lead even if it’s not in your personal best interest. And you can’t be gutless when it comes to making those kinds of decisions.”
https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/sen-kamala-harris-embraces-beautiful-design-democracy
Joe Biden’s grief over the loss of his son Beau remains intense. He chokes up at funerals. At Ethel Kennedy’s memorial service, he looked like he was struggling to maintain composure. Hunter’s problems have to be eating at him, as well. It makes what Trump and his allies have done with regard to ginning up the false charges of bribery in Ukraine even more despicable.
And I.can’t help but think that Biden’s approach to politics was shaped by the personal kindness he experienced from his political opponents at times of profound grief.
The contrast with Trump’s gross efforts to exploit family tragedy for base, indeed debased political advantage, could not be greater. And it is not just a stressor on Biden as a matter of harassment, but also it is an attack on a culture of political interaction and decencyhe was very personally invested in, was grateful for, valued highly and always attempted to display and to champion.
His determination not to buckle under those stressors had a kind of quiet heroism to it, grit if you like, which the spiteful mistook for a vanity based motivation not to accept the reality of his waning abilities.
I’m deeply touched by Bidens affection and care for his recovering son. It resonates with my own experience with addiction & family.
That said, his surprise and dismay that the GOP dared to go after his son is not something I sympathize with. The wistful feckless side of the democratic party that yearns for civility and norms and governance through tax policy helped get us into this mess.
It’s a sad story. There are no limits to how low the MAGAGOP will go. It is also a story that furthers admiration for the leadership and compassion of Joe Biden.
And then this summer, on top of the political targeting of Biden’s son Hunter:
— Netanyahu refused to make any accommodation for civilians in Gaza in spite of repeated requests by Biden and State Department, forcing the US to find alternative approaches to humanitarian aid delivery;
— Negotiations for the largest prisoner swap with Russia at the same negotiations were conducted with Netanyahu and proxies for Hamas and Palestinians.
I would not be one bit surprised to find a pattern in them.
Not ONE bit surprised.
24-MAY-24 — House Speaker Mike Johnson announces Netanyahu will speak before a joint session of Congress in July.
25-JUN-24 — U.S. and Russian officials held a meeting in a third country regarding prisoner swap while Biden does debate prep
23-JUL-24 — Trump announces he’ll meet with Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago
24-JUL-24 — Netanuyahu speaks to Congress
25-JUL-24 — Netanyahu meets Biden at White House
26-JUL-24 — Netanyahu meets Trump
STG this chain of events specifically were meant to fuck with Biden, too. There’s been no way Biden could stop congressionally approved materiel shipments to Israel without risking an impeachment.
Do you think he would have, if the election was a year away? Genuinely curious
ALSO:
7/24/24 BIDEN addresses the nation at 8 PM on what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job
– HARRIS met with NETANYAHU after BIDEN
– I think I remember NETANYAHU inviting MUSK to the speech—did that happen?
Here’s a link to some work I did on that series of events
[with a link to previous work]:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/07/25/president-bidens-address-to-the-nation/#comment-1062925
Both Biden and Harris also met with families of American hostages
[one of whom complained afterwards that Bibi was slow walking].
Bibi did NOT like what Harris said at the joint press briefing after their meeting.
I don’t know if Netanyahu invited Musk. But thank you for including Harris’s meeting with Netanyahu b/c it’s often (falsely) claimed that she didn’t.
Remember that Joe Biden’s stated reason for sitting out the 2016 election was grief over Beau’s death. I remember Melissa Harris Perry taking him to task over it after the election.
Also remember Trump saying “we have to kill the families” of suspected terrorists, showing that to be his MO from the jump.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Rwingers want regular citizen Hunter to pay his comeuppance simply because these people do not like Hunter’s dad; while at the same time, defend a real criminal like Trump and cheer the real criminal’s roadblocking of his own conviction and crimes, salivating at the prospect of the real criminal pardoning himself.
.
These Rwing people are emotionally unwell.
Clearly we are not out of the woods. “All gas no brakes” as people are rightly throwing around. However, the picture being painted here suggests the potential for an ironic outcome straight out of a movie or fairy tale.
The radicalization of impressionable young men leading to an assassination attempt on the Chief Radicalizer?
Inflammatory rhetoric meant to incite the base driving otherwise reliable supporters into the ranks of the opposition?
Then finally: A racist, misogynist cabal’s exquisitely planned ratfuck ultimately resulting in a black woman ascending to the Presidency?
Excuse me while I go spend 30 minutes swaying to Alanis Morissette.
Politico: “Trump says he’s open to pardoning Hunter Biden” (https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/10/24/2024-elections-live-coverage-updates-analysis/donald-trump-pardon-hunter-biden-00185320).
I do hope Trump won’t be given the opportunity (and if so, beware, I don’t think Hunter Biden would accept).
What a cynical attention grabbing ploy this is. He could give a shit about Hunter Biden unless it served his personal interests.
And cynical, not just for its attention grabbing effect, but also because it is part of the groundwork for RW and both-side-ers to press the case for pardoning Trump by a Harris administration.
See the Hallie Jackson interview as a case in point.
@Jose_Pagliery
Well, there you have it folks. President Biden’s remarks on Trump have made it into the latest effort to kill Jack Smith’s DC case.
https://x.com/Jose_Pagliery/status/1849588304163016729
Except ol’ Joe qualified the statement with •…at the ballot box…”
Speaking of dick pics, I’ve been wondering something: Is Trump gay?
1. His favorite song is YMCA, the gay anthem.
2. His favorite person was Roy Cohn, a gay lawyer.*
3. He admires Arnold Palmer’s package so much that he couldn’t wait to tell his rally crowd about it.
I certainly don’t hold it against him if he is but why does he have to be a coward about it?
*Roger Stone said “Roy Cohn isn’t gay, he just likes to have sex with men.”
Um, ok Rog, you go with that. Just like Trump isn’t a rapist, he just has forced sex in dressing rooms.
But if it was ever said by Roger Stone, it was said earlier and better by Roy Cohn himself, played by Al Pacino, in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America from HBO.
Roger Stone is not a reliable narrator given his sexual history which included personal ads for other men to be enjoyed by he and his spouse.
ADDER: ugh, pass the eye bleach, stat.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6640233/Inside-Roger-Stones-swinging-marriage-posted-ads-online-frequented-sex-clubs.html
I don’t know about gay, but there is a dude bro homo-eroticism that he tries to tap into, which is now and always has been a feature of the cult of masculinity fostered by fascists and autocrats.
His M.O. with Epstein
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/23/donald-trump-accuser-stacey-williams-jeffrey-epstein
For some humor on Matt Foley’s post above, see Jabari Jones youtube video called “Jerkin Tudix”. It is one of a series of his AI Trump videos that are pretty good.
On a not so funny adder to Steve Bev, it seemed the original German Nazi movement had a higher than normal percentage homosexuals in the upper reaches. Right up to stormtrooper (brownshirt) head Ernst Rohm. And our fascist thought leaders and leaders seem to mirror that disproportion also
I recently discovered Robby Roadsteamer on youtube. He has a unique way of trolling MAGAs. Very funny.
I believe that your second paragraph is profoundly in error except for noting that Ernst Rohm was homosexual.
Brief history of the Rohm scandal
Rohm was a Putschist in 1923. The NSDAP was suppressed afterwards. During 1925 after the Party was reorganised as a legal Party, Rohm broke with Hitler and went off to Bolivia for 5 years, during which time he wrote indiscreet letters. 1930 Hitler personally invited Rohm back to reorganise and take charge of the SA, which was essential to the battle for power.
Although the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany supported the repeal of Paragraph 175, the German law criminalizing homosexuality, both parties utilized homophobia to attack their Nazi opponents and inaccurately portrayed the Nazi Party as dominated by homosexuals. Their goal was to prevent or delay the Nazi seizure of power, which ultimately occurred in early 1933.
Beginning in April 1931, the SPD newspaper Münchener Post published a series of front-page stories about alleged homosexuality in the SA, which turned out to be based on forgeries. SPD leaders set out to obtain authentic evidence of Röhm’s sexuality and, if possible, convict him under Paragraph 175. Röhm was tried five times, but never convicted
During the German presidential election in March 1932, the SPD released a pamphlet edited by ex-Nazi Helmuth Klotz [de] with Röhm’s letters to Heimsoth. This second round of disclosures sparked a plot by some Nazis to murder Röhm, which fell through and resulted in additional negative press for the party.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6hm_scandal
See also
Journal of Homosexuality
Volume 29, 1995 – Issue 2-3
The ”Jews” of the Antifascist Left:
Homosexuality and the Socialist Resistance to Nazism
Harry Oosterhuis
Pages 227-257 | Published online: 18 Oct 2010
https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v29n02_09
And
From gay Nazis to ‘we’re here, we’re queer’: A century of arguing about gay pride
Published: June 22, 2017 8.12pm BST
Laurie Marhoefer, University of Washington
https://theconversation.com/from-gay-nazis-to-were-here-were-queer-a-century-of-arguing-about-gay-pride-78888
I know this is a little long, but I do not believe we should trade in disinformation, particularly if it is, as in this case, founded on the cynical use of homophobia, or in other cases racism etc. I thought we try to do better.
If I am in error, my apologies to all. It isn’t my intention to spread falsehoods.
If?
Ahem….
“And our fascist thought leaders and leaders seem to mirror that disproportion also”
…. is based on what?
this supposedly queer correlation, suggestively signifies [[[.?.]]] … ?
Thank you for pointing out the human character of Biden as a family man! It is disconcerting the glee with which those who don’t agree with him politically seem to get from inflicting more and more personal pain upon our President.
In their latest filing in the Jan. 6th case, Trump’s lawyers repeat their many-times rejected claim that Jack Smith’s appointment was unlawful and that the case should be dismissed. Their language is more circular, question begging, and desperate than usual.
Their argument treats a comment in Clarence Thomas’s dissent as if it were controlling, when it’s not. In fact, it comes from a Justice resolutely on the margins, even on this Court. They also regard, as they did before, Judge Cannon’s dismissal – still on appeal – of the Florida documents case, as if had weight in the DC Circuit. It doesn’t; it barely has persuasive authority in the SDFL. (h/t Brandi Buchman)
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149/gov.uscourts.dcd.258149.270.0_1.pdf
I don’t think Trump’s lawyers don’t know that their request will be denied by Chutkan swiftly but they have, of course, to do what their client wants them to do.
Can it be read as Trump fearing to lose the election?
That was my first thought on reading the news.
They were watching closely for a peg to grab on which to hang this and it came down to Biden’s “lock him up politically” because they had nothing else and they were desperate for anything to both make their client happy and keep his flabby ass out of jail when he loses the election.
This is a bit off-topic, but I finally understand why none of Trump’s transgressions ever cost him electorally. He violates every norm, each of these alone should’ve disqualify him, but his support is as strong as ever.
In the past, I thought that all of this is “built-in” to his public image and people ignore it because of low expectations. But now I realize that his voters don’t simply ignore it. They actually want him to do it. Whenever Trump is saying something terrible or doing something terrible, he gets reactions from the left: anger, fear etc. For those supporters, this is a kind of victory over the group they’ve been taught to hate. When he is saying, for example, that people who die in the war are “losers” and “suckers”, they see it as positive, not because they necessarily agree with him, but because of the reactions he gets from the “libs”. And “owning the libs” is now a key value for large part of the MAGA-republicans.
I’m going to say the desire to impose very real harm upon others is evident and wholly inherent in both.
At this point in time, I can find no ‘alternative’ driver, no ‘something, somehow less clear’, than the repeated conscious and willing support for candidates and policies which impose immeasurable harm upon others.
Adam Serwer got there before all of us: The cruelty is the point.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/
But I’d add, 40% of Americans are at least nominal adherents of authoritarian religions. They expect to be directed.
And, further, trump’s appeal is as a surrogate, doing what they wish they could do: stiff creditors, bang porn stars (or, for the women, screw an attractive man for a change), play all day, ignore responsibility.
Joe Biden is the extreme example of the dutiful (and duty-full) son, husband and father, and he has been dealt terrible blows on every one of those.
They want to do things TO other people more than they want to do things FOR other people, including themselves.
You mean they just want him to say “those things”?
They actually don’t want him to do those things he says? Uh uh.
Check out Michael Cohen interview with Roy Cohn’s cousin Dave Marcus. They discuss Trump’s tactics: Deny, Distract, Delay.
Video is “Trump Mentor’s Cousin SOUNDS ALARM on Trump’s Next Moves” on Meidas Touch youtube channel.
That’s rather simplistic and for some of his base it’s probably true that they are running only on “owning the libs.”
But the size of the base suggests more than this going on:
— long-term frustration with conditions like stagnant wages and housing shortages about which they are conflicted (they want a socialized solution but they can’t have socialism!);
— after decades of GOP slowly defunding education, they suffer from a lack of adequate education in civics, economics, global politics to recognize Trump’s failings and inadequacies as a leader;
— greater likelihood that Trump’s base is literally brain damaged because they are less likely to have been vaccinated for COVID, resistant to infection control, and therefore more likely to have had multiple exposures to COVID. A large percentage of Trump’s base may have lost some ability to think critically and are acting reflexively based on decades of conditioning.
For starters — and all of them self selecting based on an affinity for authoritarian personalities.
I keep asking MAGAs if they repaid any of the $2.2 trillion covid socialist handouts from daddy Trump and I never get an answer.
They complain about inflation and they don’t like “Free market, love it or leave it” as a response, either.
“But mah groceries! But mah gas tank!”
So you want more government regulation to keep prices down.
“Wha…? No! More freedom!”
You mean like this market where prices aren’t regulated.
“Not like that!”
Rayne,
Well said.
I have come to realize something about myself.
One reason I vote Democrat is because I want less outside influence in my life.
That is freedom.
Exactly, Rayne. The lost ability of critical thinking and the Pavlovian conditioning are shining bright in MAGAland.
Right wing media from Limbaugh to fox have trained those with authoritarian mindsets to react emotionally and thoughtlessly to all sorts of buzzwords. Studies have long shown that Fox News watchers are less informed than people who don’t even watch the news. Clearly more misinformed, also.
But a large part of our population prefers to be told what to be outraged at, and at which times.
O.T. WSJ reports Putin and Musk had phone conversations.
https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/musk-putin-secret-conversations-37e1c187
The report is that Elmo and Vlad had frequent conversations over at least two years, including threats and intimidation against Elmo for allowing Ukrainians to use his satellite communications system. Vlad doesn’t need direct contact to communicate those.
And even if Elmo had no direct business ties to Russia, Putin has multiple options to act on any threats. Elmo, though, seems to need no encouragement to back global fascists.
Also Putin wanted to keep Taiwan from getting Starlink access.
It’s *past* time that the Logan Act was enforced.
Off-topic: Team Trump has filed another motion in the jan 6 case:
President Donald J. Trump’s Proposed Motion to Dismiss and for Injunctive Relief Based on Violations of the Appointments and Appropriations Clauses.
CNN has an article about it here.
Ahhh, I see earlofhuntingdon mentioned it already in a comment, sorry for being redundant.
It will be interesting to see Judge Chutkan’s response to this proposed motion, which at a glance, seems to consist mostly of arguments she has rejected one or more times already?
President Biden’s greatest gift to his son is unconditional love.
“Unconditional love is the most powerful tool in a parent’s toolkit, shaping and molding a child’s sense of self.”
– Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers (2003)