Joe Biden repeatedly mistook a senator’s wife for one of his own White House staffers, even after she told him who she was, potentially exposing another example of the president’s mental deterioration.
The shocking story was told by Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee on The Tucker Carlson Show and later in a call with DailyMail.com.
He said he and his wife, Sharon, had met with the president on multiple occasions.
But during a White House reception for congressional spouses about two years ago, the president did not acknowledge her when she greeted him.
Biden asked her name, which she clearly did not remember despite having met her many times, and then asked her if she worked for him in the East Wing of the White House.
When she told him she was the wife of Sen. Mike Lee, Biden seemed confused before asking her again if she was on his West Wing staff.
The “strange” interaction led Lee to assume that the president is “not quite in his element.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, with his wife Sharon Lee, at the White House in 2020. Lee said his wife told him that President Joe Biden had completely forgotten who she was and asked if she worked in the East Wing of the White House. After she told him no and that she was Sen. Lee’s wife, he asked her again if she worked in the West Wing of the White House.
‘My wife, I think this was in the first half or first quarter of 2022, went to a White House event for Senate spouses hosted by the first lady, who was a long-time member of the Senate spouses organization.’
As President Biden entered the event, Lee’s wife, Sharon Lee, greeted the commander in chief, the senator said.
“Oh, hello Mr. President, it’s nice to see you,” she told the president, according to Lee.
“He asked him, ‘Do you work in the East Wing?'” the Republican said.
“And she said, ‘No, Mr. President, I’m Sharon Lee, Senator Mike Lee’s wife,'” the senator continued.
“He swore me in the Senate twice,” Lee immediately told Carlson, describing their interactions over the years between 2011 and 2017.
“We had interacted with him a lot and she thought that would solve the problem,” Lee said of his wife’s assumption that Biden would remember her.
“He seemed confused,” Sharon said.
“She wasn’t quite there,” the Republican senator said of Biden after recounting his wife’s story.
“It was like I was talking to someone who didn’t know what was going on,” Sharon said.
‘I’ve interacted with Joe Biden quite a bit over the years, my wife much less so, of course, but enough times that she could recognize what his personality is and what his personality isn’t, and she realized that this is very out of character for him.’
That same evening, the wife of another congressman approached President Biden and asked him to speak on the phone with a family member who supported him and whose birthday was that day.
Lee noted that Biden is “really good” at working a room and is known for being personable, saying warming up his supporters is “his signature move.”
When his wife handed the phone to Biden, the president froze, Lee said, telling his wife’s story.
‘This woman handed him the phone, it rang, the woman’s brother-in-law answered, ‘hello,’ and then (Biden) got a confused look on his face, handed her the phone, hung up and handed the phone back.’
“That’s very meaningful to Joe Biden,” Lee said of the event that occurred about two years ago.
“He just seemed confused and forgot what he was supposed to do.”
The Republican called the interaction “alarming.”
Senator Mike Lee pictured with his wife Sharon Lee
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting on combating fentanyl, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Nov. 21, 2023, in Washington.
Biden’s age and ability had been at the forefront of attacks against him while he was still running for reelection.
Even in the weeks since his campaign was canceled, Republicans have called on his Cabinet, and particularly Vice President Kamala Harris, to invoke the 25th Amendment, which outlines presidential succession in the case of an unfit commander.
Videos of him seemingly paralyzed at public appearances and his disjointed, halting interviews have further fueled concerns about his health and condition.
Lee also described how the president appeared to begin showing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, from which his own mother-in-law died in recent years.
The doctor told her when she was diagnosed that Lee would start to notice real signs of deterioration when her mother-in-law’s posture and gait were affected.
US President Joe Biden pauses before addressing the nation on his decision not to seek re-election
Lee said Biden’s posture and gait remind him of his mother-in-law, who died of Alzheimer’s in recent years.
Lee said Biden’s walk is reminiscent of the way his mother-in-law used to walk.
“One day it just occurred to me, oh my God, he walks like Carol did, he walks like my mother-in-law walked when what the doctors told us to look out for started to kick in,” she told DailyMail.com.
“It’s like you’re shuffling your feet forward. It’s not a fluid movement, it’s a little more robotic.”
“I saw that same walk and posture in President Biden during his first term in office.”
There could be other reasons for those symptoms, Lee continued, but he said he also saw other clear signs of “cognitive decline.”
‘He will utter a few words in a row or an entire sentence that is nearly unintelligible, or that makes no sense, or that is factually or logically implausible, or he will appear to get lost while performing a very simple task, such as walking from point A to point B.’
“So when you put all those things together, and as I say, most of those things I’ve put together based on publicly available information, I have no doubt that he’s had a lot of bad days, probably more bad days than good ones.”
