PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: “How Biden’s frailties hampered Harris,” The Hill reports today:
Democratic Party officials and White House staffers were well aware of former President Biden’s frailties ahead of his choice to end his ill-fated reelection bid last summer, according to exclusive excerpts of a new book released to The Hill.
The excerpt from “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House” by The Hill senior political correspondent Amie Parnes and NBC News senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen reveals extensive steps to cover up the signs of Biden’s aging and contingency planning if Biden chose to step aside or even died in office.
“It shows what we had to do to prepare with the unique circumstances we had, which was an eighty-plus-year-old president who was running,” one party official who was involved in the secret discussions said, according to Parnes and Allen.
Concerns around Biden’s age dominated much of his reelection campaign from its launch in April 2023 to its end in July 2024 following a disastrous debate performance.
Party and administration officials repeatedly downplayed these worries, insisting Biden was fully capable of winning and serving another four-year term in office. Despite Biden’s occasional public stumbles, they sought to assure the public that behind closed doors, Biden remained sharp and fully in command.
And The Hill was quite ready to pitch in! Flashback to this June 19th, 2024 article headlined: ‘Cheap fake’ Biden videos burst into national spotlight.
Another clip came from Biden’s recent trip to Italy for the Group of Seven (G7) meeting, when he and other world leaders watched a skydiving demonstration. A cropped version of the video seemed to show Biden wandering off before the Italian prime minister nudges him back toward the group.
But the fuller angle makes clear Biden was gesturing toward a parachutist who had just landed. The New York Post made the incident the centerpiece of its front page the next day, with the headline, “Meander in Chief.”
Right-wing media also spread a clip from a Saturday fundraiser, alleging Biden froze up on stage and had to be led away by former President Obama. Aides for both Biden and Obama disputed that characterization.
The video shows both Obama and Biden waving goodbye to the crowd at the end of the event. After a few moments, Obama grabs Biden by the hand and pats him on the back before they walk away. In response to a New York Post headline claiming Biden froze up and had to be led off stage by Obama, an Obama adviser responded, “This did not happen.”
Former President Trump highlighted the videos during a Tuesday campaign rally in Racine, Wis., and mocked the White House response.
“Crooked Joe and his handlers are insisting he’s sharper than ever, and they say the videos of crooked Joe shuffling around are ‘clean fakes,’” Trump said. “They say they’re deceptively edited. All of the mistakes that he’s made … he can’t go anywhere without a mistake.”
Although the “cheap fakes” are less convincing than sophisticated AI deepfakes, they still pose a danger — especially by eroding trust among voters, said Paul Barrett, deputy director and senior research scholar at the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
“What they do is they further erode the distinction between what’s true and what’s not true, and I think they provide fuel that feeds highly polarized partisan attitudes that are already in place,” Barrett said.
While the videos may not sway many Democrats to change their vote, over time the altered videos can reinforce and provide “artificial fuel” to a false narrative about Biden, he said.
Oceania has always been at war with East Scranton.