Why the White House Tries to Pretend That Biden Doesn’t Forget Things

Most of us with eyes can see what happened. President Biden forgot that the late Representative Jackie Walorski died in a car accident last month. “Representative Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? I think she was going to be here to make this a reality.” Biden had no ill intent, he just plain forgot.

But the Biden team refuses to acknowledge this, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre going to absurd lengths to insist that Biden did not misspeak.

Why is the White House being so stubborn about this? Probably because admitting any uncomfortable public memory lapse by Biden will reopen the discussion about whether the soon-to-turn-octogenarian Biden’s general mental state is compatible with the duties of the presidency, an argument that started to get loud in early summer. Mark Leibovich wrote in the Atlantic  that Biden shouldn’t run for another term because, in his view, though Biden’s mental sharpness and physical health are just fine right now, they might not be in a few years. The New York Times reported:

Although White House officials insist they make no special accommodations the way Reagan’s team did, privately they try to guard Mr. Biden’s weekends in Delaware as much as possible. He is generally a five- or five-and-a-half-day-a-week president, although he is called at any hour regardless of the day as needed. He stays out of public view at night and has taken part in fewer than half as many news conferences or interviews as recent predecessors.

Forgetting that a member of Congress recently passed away is unfortunate, but minimally consequential. Forgetting your military advisers recommended the U.S. keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan is much more consequential.

Acknowledging a routine memory lapse is harmless to most presidents, but in this administration, admitting the president has forgotten anything is likely to spur the fair question, “say, how is Joe Biden’s memory these days?”