The alarming revelations about Joe Biden’s decline have raised questions about how long the president was incapacitated while leading the country and how long his staff, close advisers and family were covering up the truth.
Concerns about Biden’s age had already begun when he announced his 2020 campaign at the age of 77.
Democrats complained as the former vice president struggled in the primary debates, frequently stumbling over talking points as he jumbled his sentences.
At the time, the most favorable interpretation was that it was simply “Biden being Biden”: he was the affable, gaffe-ridden politician who struggled from his early youth with stuttering.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit during the general election, Biden’s staff almost breathed a sigh of relief when the president was no longer expected to campaign publicly, risking mistakes.
Instead, he was quarantined in his family’s basement, where he could be relied on to deliver short written speeches and tightly controlled remote video interviews over Zoom.
Despite some concerns about his age, the public watched Biden perform successfully during the 2020 presidential debates as he tangled rhetorically with Donald Trump on two occasions over the future of the country.
Biden won the presidency in 2020, but he was still sheltered in a cocoon of closely watched staff as the pandemic raged and his public and media resources were limited and carefully scheduled.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden wait to take a photo with staff outside the White House.
Perhaps the first time the public began to become alarmed was when President Biden demonstrated his dramatic physical limitations, repeatedly falling down stairs while boarding Air Force One on March 18, 2021 for a trip to Atlanta, Georgia.
White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted the president was “100 percent fine” and blamed the wind for his stumbles.
However, in August 2021, Biden began to demonstrate real difficulties communicating and reacting to important public events.
During the failed exit from Afghanistan, President Biden continued to keep his remarks strictly scripted for days, refusing to answer shouted questions from reporters and sticking to the script with his talking points.
The country was not satisfied with his answers, prompting staff to schedule an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos to allow the president to defend his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan.
Biden made multiple errors and gaffes throughout the interview that aired on August 19, 2021 and they had to be clarified and corrected by the White House.
The subsequent suicide terrorist attack that killed 13 American fighters and more than 170 Afghan civilians shook Biden as he struggled to defend the failed exit from the country.
US President Joe Biden pauses and grabs his folder as he listens to a question from a reporter.
Joe Biden slips three times while climbing the stairs to Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland
When he finally answered questions from the press, Biden became frustrated and struggled to finish sentences and remember basic facts and talking points.
At one point, he hung his head in frustration and anger, clutching his briefing book of talking points as Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked him a question.
Even many who voted for Biden questioned the president’s ability to handle the chaotic events and the decisions he made about how to withdraw forces from Afghanistan.
Biden’s performance as a major world leader during Russian aggression in Ukraine also raised questions about his abilities.
In January 2022, Biden held a wide-ranging press conference after a long drought in commutations with the White House press.
Even before it was over, staff had to clarify Biden’s comments that Russia was conducting a “minor incursion” into Ukraine that might not provoke a response from the United States and its NATO allies.
A National Security Council spokeswoman immediately said Biden was only talking about possible non-military, paramilitary or cyber attacks. The president hadn’t even finished speaking.
Following his press conference, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also issued a statement to clarify the president’s remarks.
President Joe Biden delivers a speech marking the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In March 2022, White House staff were also quick to correct Biden after he gave a speech in Poland to confront Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden declared forcefully, suggesting that he supported regime change in Russia.
The White House immediately said Biden’s comments were not about regime change and that it was not in his prepared remarks.
Biden continued his presidency holding detailed cards from his staff that reminded him where to go, what to say and who he was talking to.
His cough was no longer stifled by occasional cough drops, his voice became thinner and weaker, and his walk became stiffer, raising additional questions about his abilities.
In June 2022, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre hyperbolically defended Biden’s acuity.
“Oh my God, he’s the president of the United States, you know, he… I can’t even keep up with him,” he told CNN’s Don Lemon in an interview, urging skeptics to look at the work he was achieving.
But in September 2022, Biden raised more concerns after arriving at an event with members of Congress and calling Rep. Jackie Walorski, who had died more than a month earlier in a car accident.
‘Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? Biden said, apparently unaware of his passing.
The White House defended Biden’s question, saying only that the late congresswoman was “top of mind” during his remarks.
In June 2023, Biden tripped on a sandbag and fell sprawling on the stage at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. White House advisers responded that the president was “doing well” after the undignified incident.
‘Calm down, nervous girls’ wrote Biden’s former chief of staff, Ron Klain, on social media, scolded Democrats for questioning the president’s health.
“Okay,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt later tweeted. “There was a sandbag (seen on the left) on the stage while he was shaking hands.”
In October 2023, Biden ran into trouble during his interview with special counsel Robert Hur over classified documents found in his possession.
Hur’s report revealed his honest assessment that Biden was a “sympathetic, well-intentioned old man with a short memory.”
When the details were released in early January, Biden was furious about the allegation.
He was running for re-election and was already fighting suggestions that he was too old and senile to seek a second term.
Biden held a press conference defending his capabilities, but after insisting that ‘my memory is fine,’ he mistakenly referred to Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, as ‘the president of Mexico’ without correcting himself.
Throughout, Biden’s staff repeatedly defended the president’s physical and mental capabilities.
But behind the scenes, donors attending fundraising events were incredibly alarmed as he often interrupted himself during speeches and struggled to remember who he was speaking to.
At public events, Biden sometimes seemed lost on stage, waiting for staff to point him in the right direction.
Biden’s public conduct was so bad in the summer of 2024 that donors were openly questioning the president’s decision to run for re-election.
President Joe Biden participates in the CNN presidential debate at the CNN studios
In the June 2024 presidential debate, Biden struggled to finish his sentences and mixed up prepared talking points as he tried to compete with Trump.
Biden’s frail, raspy, raspy voice alarmed debate viewers when he claimed there were “a thousand billionaires” in the United States who should be taxed more.
Later in the debate he declared that “we finally beat Medicare” and struggled to launch his prepared attacks on Trump.
‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. “I don’t think he knows what he said either,” Trump joked.
The failed debate performance led a number of Democrats to publicly call for Biden to drop out of the race.
But the White House continued to defend Biden’s capabilities
During a NATO summit on July 11, Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” before correcting himself.
The president also referred to his vice president as ‘Trump’ instead of Kamala Harris during a press conference at the summit.
“Look, I wouldn’t have chosen Vice President Trump as vice president if I didn’t think she was qualified to be president,” he said.
Biden continued to insist that he was “doing well” and eligible for re-election.
‘If I slow down, I can’t do the work. That’s a sign you shouldn’t do it. But there are still no signs of it, none,” he said.
On July 21, Biden announced that he would abandon his presidential campaign.