- The president seemed to stop moving completely for the better part of a minute.
President Joe Biden raised concerns Monday night when he appeared to freeze for the better part of a minute during a lively Juneteenth celebration at the White House.
During next week’s national holiday event, the Commander in Chief appeared to short-circuit as the rest of the crowd, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, danced to the lively band.
Philonise Floyd, brother of the late George Floyd, flanked Biden on his left and eventually noticed the worrying pause he was making and put his arm around him in an apparent effort to help.
Pictured: Joe Biden, Dough Ehmoff, Kamala Harris, Philonise Floyd, Keeta Floyd. Biden sparks concern when he appears to FREEZE during the Juneteenth celebration concert at the White House alongside a dancing Kamala Harris, before George Floyd’s brother puts his arm around him.
US Vice President Kamala Harris dances with US singer Kirk Franklin during a June 16 concert on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, June 10, 2024.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal published an explosive report about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, which has reportedly become apparent to dozens of high-ranking officials in recent months.
More than 45 Republican and Democratic lawmakers and staff members offered their views on the issue, citing recent mistakes by the commander in chief that they found troubling.
While the White House maintains that the 81-year-old remains a senior leader, the dozens of people who spoke with The Wall Street Journal disagreed, describing a president who today speaks so softly that some have a hard time even understanding what he says.
Others pointed to the commander-in-chief’s declining grasp of important policy details and his increasing reliance on offhand notes and offers from his aides.
Several said Biden’s behavior varies from day to day, as the White House reportedly went to great lengths to control what Democrats said. The report, titled “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping,” released Tuesday.
“You couldn’t be there and not feel uncomfortable,” an anonymous source said of a meeting with Biden during critical negotiations over congressional funding for Ukraine aid in January, where the president acted so slowly that it took him about 10 minutes to say hello. to the president. Almost two dozen senior leaders were summoned.
The meeting did not begin until the president was finished, several attendees told the newspaper, before describing the ensuing discussion aimed at securing more funding from Congress.
At that point, Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, began reading from his notes, making general points about the need to give money to Ukraine.
This seemed strange to many, sources said, given that lawmakers were more than familiar with the fact that funds were needed. Some said they were also having trouble hearing him, as officials in Ukraine desperately begged the United States to provide them with ammunition.
Biden also deferred most conversations to other lawmakers, several said, to the point that most of the conversation did not include him.
When asked questions directly, he turned to staff, they all said, describing only the first alarming sign they saw this year.
In another case that month not mentioned by the Journal, Biden mixed up the names of two of his Hispanic Cabinet secretaries, sparking more speculation about their mental abilities.
In a matter of weeks, he publicly forgot the names of the widow of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and a German chancellor who died in 2017, while confusing leaders in distant Egypt and Mexico.