President Joe Biden has been “losing focus” and “concentration” at the G7 Summit, and it is “embarrassing,” British tabloid the Sun reported Friday, according to diplomatic sources.
The Sun recounted a Thursday episode that appeared to show Biden wandering off into the distance before Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni turned him back to the group of world leaders watching a skydiving show.
The “concerning shuffle” caused the Sun’s sources to question Biden, the tabloid’s Harry Cole reported:
One told the Sun: “It’s the worst he has ever been.”
Another insider added that while the president had shown moments of sharpness and clarity during meetings, at other times, he had appeared to be “losing focus” and concentration.
Other attendees from multiple delegations have described Mr. Biden’s performance incident as “embarrassing.”
The incident was also written about in an Italian paper, Corriere Della Sera, the largest in circulation.
Corriere Della Sera’s Viviana Mazza reported:
A video in which the G7 leaders are observing the paratroopers’ performance of the Folgore Brigade and Biden steps away for a moment, recalled by Giorgia Meloni who touches his arm, has gone viral. Critics describe it as a moment in which he “gets distracted” and “wanders,” supporters note that in reality he only turned around for a moment to compliment one of the paratroopers.
Doubts about the age of the president, an 81-year-old man subjected to exhausting rhythms between international commitments and election campaigning, are not new to Americans. Also in a rare interview Biden gave to Time magazine last month, the author notes, following the president into the Oval Office, that “his stiff gait, muffled voice, erratic syntax clashes with the intense, talkative appearance from when he was a senator or vice president.” The Trump campaign focuses a lot on this: a video showing President Biden who seems to try to sit on a chair that’s not there during the anniversary of the Normandy landings that also went viral; but it was partial footage and therefore distorted, as the Associated Press noted, because in the complete one the American president looks back, sees a chair and sits down slowly after a pause. In other moments, such as the Juneteenth ceremony a few days ago at the White House, Biden smiles but is immobile and a little out of place, while everyone around him is dancing.
…
In an article published by the Wall Street Journal in the days past, Republican lawmakers, under anonymity, told anecdotes about the “slowness” and “yielding” of the 81-year-old American president in closed-door meetings in which they discussed issues such as funds for Ukraine and the debt ceiling. In one these meetings in January, the American president – the authors wrote – he had “a voice so faint that some people had difficulty hearing it, paused for a long time, and closed his eyes for so long that they wondered if he was still tuned.” A spokesman for Biden, Andrew Bates, defined the Republicans’ comments as “politically motivated” and said foreign leaders, experts, and even the same Republicans in Congress have recognized that Biden is “an expert leader” and if he happens to retell the same story over again, he has always done it, even before he was 81-years-old.
About one-third of Democrats doubt Biden’s mental fitness, a Harvard/Harris survey found in December. Another poll revealed that 82 percent of Americans harbor concerns about his physical and mental health.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
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