During Thursday’s episode of ABC’s The View, President Bill Clinton came to President Joe Biden’s defense regarding his debated 2024 debate performance, attributing the issue in part to poor scheduling decisions made by Biden’s team.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin posed a pointed question: “Mr. President, I want to ask you, last time you were here, you were actually fiercely defender of President Biden’s when people were questioning whether he should stay in the race and when he decided to step aside. You praised his decision to do so. [T]here have now been a lot of reports, books written with Democratic sources talking about what appeared to be decline while he was in the White House. Do you give any credence to those reports or do you stand by your assessment of the former president?”
In response, Clinton said, “Well, I think you have to pay attention to them, but all I can say is whenever I was around him, his mind was clear, his judgment was good, and he was on top of his briefs. But look what, look at that debate, for example. What happened in the ten days before his debate, and what were the White House staff thinking? He went to Europe and back twice, and then he went to California once. And he was 80 years old. What the heck is he doing that for? So, why was that allowed to happen? So, there’s a lot of questions. All I know is I think we should think less about that and more about the future. We know President Reagan had clear signs of Alzheimer’s in his last two years. We know Woodrow Wilson after his stroke couldn’t make any decisions and his wife made them.”
Clinton’s remarks emphasized both his personal experience with Biden’s mental acuity and his criticism of how Biden’s travel agenda may have impacted his readiness. He also drew historical comparisons to other presidents who showed signs of cognitive decline while in office, suggesting that focusing forward is more important than dwelling on debate-night missteps.
{Matzav.com}