White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged Friday that President Joe Biden is having trouble speaking and debating, abandoning the claim that such accusations were based on edited videos, or “cheap fakes.”
Jean-Pierre was briefing reporters on Air Force One en route to New York after the president’s disastrous first presidential debate on Thursday evening, when he appeared confused and frightened, and slurred his speech at times.
Biden acknowledged his problems in remarks to a rally Friday in North Carolina, saying that he can still perform as president even though he cannot walk or speak as well as he used to — his first public admission of infirmity.
Folks, I might not walk as easily or talk as smoothly as I used to.
I might not debate as well as I used to.
But what I do know is how to tell the truth.pic.twitter.com/ep5D0EhT5P
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 28, 2024
Last week, Jean-Pierre called videos showing Biden having trouble speaking or walking “cheap fakes.” As a June 17 transcript of a White House press briefing indicated:
Q Secondly, there — there seems to be a sort of rash of videos that have been edited to make the President appear especially frail or mentally confused. I’m wondering if the — the White House is especially worried about the fact that this appears to be a pattern that we’re seeing more — more often?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, we — and I think you all have called this the “cheap fakes” video. And that’s exactly what they are. They are cheap fakes video. They are done in bad faith. And — and some of your news organization have — have been very clear, have stressed that these right-wing — the right-wing critics of the President have a credibility problem because of — the fact checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation.
And so, we see this, and this is something coming from — from your — your part of the world, calling them cheap fakes and misinformation.
Now, however, the White House is admitting reality — or coming close to it.
“He understands, look, he’s not as smooth as he used to be on the debate stage, he doesn’t speak as smoothly as he used to — I mean, you heard him say and acknowledge where he is today,” Jean-Pierre said.
“But the thing that he ended with, which I think is so important ,which I keep saying over and over to all of you, is he knows he’s going to fight for democracy, he’s going to fight for freedom, and he knows exactly how to do that.”
Democrats are discussing removing Biden from the ticket — though doing so would require his consent. The party changed its primary rules, including putting South Carolina first, to remove potential challengers earlier this year.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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