Dem Rep. Smith: Biden Had ‘Troubling Signs’ After SOTU, But We Didn’t See His Health Declined Until Debate

During an interview on CBS on Sunday, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said that “we started to see some troubling signs” with President Joe Biden after the State of the Union, but “we didn’t hide anything. You can’t hide the president. He was out there. And then, when it reached the point where we saw that his health had declined, the party made the right choice and Joe Biden made the right choice.”

CBS Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked, “[W]e’re already seeing these attack lines from adversaries overseas and from Republicans that Democrats covered up the truth. Is that what happened or did something change more immediately with Joe Biden that led — over the past three weeks, was it just that one debate, or what forced many of you to come out publicly and say that he needed to step aside?”

Smith answered, “So, the big factor you’re forgetting is the State of the Union speech. The whole world saw the State of the Union speech. And that was March and President Biden gave an energetic speech. He responded to stuff from the audience. He looked good.”

Brennan then cut in to say that the State of the Union was after the primary process, a characterization that Smith disagreed with. She then asked, “[D]id you put off a painful conversation for too long?”

Smith responded, “Look, no, and part of it is because of what happened in March. And look, everyone’s going to be…a couch potato doctor at this point, going, well we all knew. No, you don’t — it’s hard to diagnose people. Look, I went through a massive healthcare problem, anxiety problem, hip problem, pain. I went to I don’t know how many different doctors before they figured that out, … well over 100, as a matter of fact. So, the notion that, somehow, we could have diagnosed President Biden from a distance when, again, the State of the Union speech was incredibly strong. Now, after that, we started to see some troubling signs, culminating in the debate. So, no, we didn’t hide anything. You can’t hide the president. He was out there. And then, when it reached the point where we saw that his health had declined, the party made the right choice and Joe Biden made the right choice. So, we didn’t hide anything. The decision was made, I think, at the right time.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett