It’s almost a requirement around here to accuse the media, especially the New York Times, of bias against Biden and the Democrats, whether it’s because they want a tight horse race that will stimulate readership and clicks, or whether it’s because their corporate owners think they personally will do better under the GOP, or whether, again as in the case of the NYT, out of pique for being ignored.
There is truth in all of this. But we can also go too far the other way. And that’s what we’re doing right now: blaming the media for reporting what they actually do see, which is Democratic panic over Biden’s performance in the debate and in his ability to win and to run the country for the next 4 years.
This panic isn’t new, but some of it has been kept under wraps — by the same media we keep blaming for reporting what we can all see. The Biden on the debate stage last week was not the same Biden who delivered a forceful State of the Union earlier this year. Mentally he may still be acute, but physically he has aged far more than just the few calendar months between those two events.
WaPo (not as biased as NYT): Biden’s aging is seen as accelerating, lapses described as more common
None of those who spoke to The Washington Post said they had seen Biden appear as lost and confused as he did at the presidential debate against Donald Trump on June 27, where his halting performance sent panic through the Democratic Party. They largely did not question his mental acuity, and several senior White House aides who interact with Biden regularly said that he continues to ask probing, detailed questions about complicated policy matters and can recall facts from previous briefings in minute detail.
Nevertheless, Biden has slowed considerably over the last several months, according to 21 people, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic and share candid assessments.
I also find this part disturbing:
[D]uring the Group of Seven nations summit in Italy last month, a number of European leaders were struck by Biden’s appearance and demeanor, according to four people who spoke directly with multiple leaders. The general impression among leaders, the people said, was that while Biden appeared capable of carrying out his duties today, they were concerned about how he would be able to serve another four-year term.
The leaders noted that Biden seemed more tired, frail and less lucid at certain moments. Several said he was hard to hear, prompting meeting participants to ask him to speak up at times, according to a summit participant. The president also sometimes lost his train of thought, though would return to the point quickly, three of the people said.
Remember, these are the leaders of our allies and friends, the ones who see Trump as the threat that he is and are terrified of what the world would turn into if Putin’s puppet gets back in power.
NBC News (not quite MSNBC, but close) also had this report yesterday: Some Democrats say Biden's debate performance wasn't an anomaly
[T]he notion that last week's debate was an anomaly doesn’t jibe with the impressions of some Democratic lawmakers who’ve seen him up close and come away doubting his capacity to hold office.
Far from a one-off, the debate revealed the same worrying traits — memory lapses, incoherence, a vacant look — these officials say they've noticed in Biden’s company throughout his term.
“The country saw [at the debate] what those of us who have had personal interactions with him have all known for the last 2½ years,” a senator said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss Biden’s fitness.
We can’t keep blaming the media for reporting what people who have worked with Biden tell them about the president’s condition. Or for reporting what we see for ourselves. I watched that entire debate feeling much the same way I would watching a slow-motion airplane crash. I very much admire Biden, worked for his election in 2020, and will again if he insists on running — but I did not want the man I saw for myself on that stage running again. And I can’t blame the media for reporting what I saw.
We also cannot blame the media for reporting stories like this one — Business leaders, pro-Democracy activists send letter asking Biden to withdraw — because it happens to be true:
A prominent group of political donors, civic leaders and business executives founded to protect the institutions of American democracy sent a letter Friday morning to President Biden calling on him to “cement your legacy” by ending his bid for reelection. . . .
The letter was organized by Leadership Now Project, a group founded in 2018 in response to rising concerns about threats to democratic norms. It was delivered to multiple White House advisers, said a person familiar with the effort, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private communication.
I can and do blame the media for not reporting the other half of what I saw in that debate: Trump, who is physically in better shape (though not by much), but whose mental decline was blatantly obvious and increasing. He was worse in the last part of the debate than in the beginning, becoming more and more incoherent, ignoring the questions (even when the moderators repeatedly asked him to answer), repeating the same lies and fantasies. I can and do blame CNN for the restrictions they put on the moderators not to fact-check the debaters, and I agree that they did a bad job (though Dana Bash did once scold Trump for acting like a child, sounding very much like a fed-up mother). Mostly I blame the media for failing to still, to this day, to shout out about Trump’s lies, his plans to be a dictator, his increasing mental decline, his overall incompetence and unfitness for office.
Blame the media for giving Trump a free pass (not quite as bad as the one SCROTUS just did, but close). But don’t blame them for reporting that more and more of the Democratic (and democratic) world has concluded that Biden cannot beat Trump and that he needs to let someone else do that job.