Biden Can’t Resist the ‘River of Power’
It’s been a week of “step away" stories for President Biden, the most significant of which came from the normally sympathetic David Ignatius of the Washington Post. His argument was clear and gently put: Mr. Biden is an admirable figure who’s won great victories, but age has taken too much from him.
His supporters can see this, most privately admit it, and he should refrain from putting himself forward as his party’s nominee. The tempo of such advice is increasing because time is running out for other candidates to gain purchase, raise money and organize campaigns. Some urgency comes because even though he’s under increased scrutiny as a teller of untruths, Mr.
Biden unleashed a whopper this week, on 9/11, after the morning’s commemorations, when he claimed in a speech that he’d rushed to Ground Zero the day after the attack. He hadn’t, and the White House quietly admitted as much; he visited the site with a congressional delegation on Sept. 20, 2001.
Stories like this are so instantly checkable you wonder, again, why Mr. Biden would court embarrassment. After 22 years memory might scramble things, but CNN followed up with a report on other recent false claims, citing three in a single speech last month, one of them “long debunked." It’s possible Mr.
Biden has been telling these stories so long he’s become convinced they’re true. The disturbing consideration is that while repeated lying is a characterological fault, not knowing you’re lying might suggest a neurological one. Last December I hoped the president’s advisers would take him aside and use some friendly persuasion.
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