Latest revelations about Biden’s acuity put Democrats in a tough spot

Democrats are trying to move beyond Joe Biden, but continued questions about his health and cognitive abilities in office are emerging as both a major distraction and a litmus test.

Joe Biden has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. Picture: AFP.

Democrats are trying to move beyond Joe Biden, but continued questions about the former president’s cognitive abilities in office are emerging as both a major distraction and a litmus test for their party’s leaders.

Biden dominated the national political conversation this past weekend with word of a cancer diagnosis as well as newly released audio recordings of an October 2023 interview that renewed debate about his mental decline in office.

In his interview with then-special counsel Robert Hur, the then-president can be heard struggling for the right words and dates, including missing by a year when President Trump was elected for the first time in 2016. The Biden administration released transcripts in March 2024, but declined to make the audio public at the time.

Questions about Biden’s cognitive state in office have created a split within his party, with some standing by him and others complaining that aides hid his challenges long enough to prevent a primary from being held to find a stronger candidate.

The former president, 82, had campaigned for a second term until he stepped aside for former Vice President Kamala Harris after a halting debate performance in late June made his struggles impossible to hide.

The President Joe Biden speaks from the Roosevelt Room of the White House as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on in Washington. Picture: AFP.

Continued revelations about Biden’s mental capacity in office have also led to awkward questions for prospective 2028 Democratic presidential candidates. For Harris and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, both part of the administration, the topic is especially fraught.

The days since Trump’s election have been some of the most challenging that Democrats have faced in decades, as the party has struggled to land on a clear message or leading messenger. The most recent Wall Street Journal poll showed just 37 per cent of voters view the party favourably, compared with 45 per cent for the GOP. The former president, who left office in January, was viewed favourably by just 36 per cent of voters.

The Biden narrative has also helped reinforce the notion that Democrats have a generational problem. Some younger Democrats are pushing to oust older party lawmakers in Washington, citing the need to connect more closely with the next generation of voters and energetically spar with Trump.

“We need to nominate someone who is not older than the retirement age,” said Rebecca Katz, a New York-based Democratic strategist.

Republicans have eagerly kept the Biden debate going. Speaking to reporters as he flew from Rome to Washington on Monday, Vice President JD Vance wished the former president well before calling for a deeper look into his mental acuity in office.

“We really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job,” Vance said. “In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him.” The vice president questioned whether doctors or White House aides purposefully withheld information about Biden’s fitness for office from voters.

The headaches Biden has created for Democrats since leaving office have made it harder for the minority party in Washington to keep attention focused on Trump’s handling of the economy, inflation and tariffs.

Biden has sought to defend himself, sitting for interviews with the BBC and ABC’s “The View.” He is also working on his memoirs, with an expected release of a book about his presidency in the fall.

Hur’s interviews were part of an investigation into whether Biden improperly retained classified information after leaving office as vice president at the end of Barack Obama’s administration. At times, the former president jokes and appears in command of details, but at other times he goes on long digressions and forgets basic facts.

The release of the recordings comes as Democrats face a public reckoning about the extent of Biden’s diminished faculties as president. Several new books delve into the topic, including one by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson set to be released Tuesday.

Pre-publication excerpts have painted a picture of a declining Biden protected by aides. The book claims he was unable to recognise actor George Clooney at a 2024 California fundraiser, although another party present at the time has disputed the account. It also suggests the then-president was isolated from cabinet members, had a shortened workday and was heavily dependent on a teleprompter for even off-camera remarks.

The Wall Street Journal reported, in an article on June 4, 2024, that those who observed Biden in person were concerned about his decline and, in an article on Dec. 19, 2024, that aides worked to conceal signs he had diminished.

“It is pretty clear that things were worse than the White House was letting on,” said Pete Giangreco, a Democratic strategist who worked on both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. “It’s time for the folks who shielded the president from everyone to pay the price.” Giangreco said he is not convinced that Democrats as a whole will suffer for continued revelations about Biden’s mental acuity.

Sympathy from the cancer diagnosis could soften some of the criticism. “President Biden and his family have gone through so much, and to have to go through this is horrible,” Giangreco said.

When Democrats have been able to keep the focus on Trump, they have recorded some electoral success this year. Those wins include state legislative races, a high-stakes Wisconsin Supreme Court election in April, and last week’s win by a Democrat over a Republican on her third term in an Omaha, Neb., mayoral race.

On Sunday, Biden’s office released a statement saying he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, including metastasis to the bone, after he was experiencing increasing urinary symptoms.

Biden’s form of prostate cancer is aggressive and late-stage, but prostate cancers generally are slower growing. The overall chance that a person diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer is alive after five years is around 37 per cent, according to the American Cancer Society.

The former president’s diagnosis generated empathy from even some of his harshest critics, including Trump. Democrats pointed to Biden’s focus on the Obama era “cancer moonshot” of battling the disease in the aftermath of the 2015 cancer death of his son, Beau Biden, an initiative he carried into the White House.

“Cancer touches us all,” Biden posted on social media on Monday. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”

Dow Jones