President Joe Biden’s “obvious cognitive decline” was the most underreported story of 2024, CBS News reporter Jan Crawford claimed on Sunday, conceding the octogenarian’s declining mental acuity appeared obvious to all but members of the corporate media whose very job it was to cover the White House and its occupant.
Crawford, the network’s chief legal correspondent, stated the nature of the entire 2024 election could have been reshaped if Biden’s mental fitness had been addressed earlier in the election cycle by the Washington press corps and the cloistered Democratic political class.
The reporter made her claim in response to a question from “Face the Nation” moderator Major Garrett about the most underreported story in 2024, and in doing so affirmed doubts voters had long expressed about Biden’s fitness for high office even as it was entirely ignored by political reporters.
“Undercovered and underreported, that would be, to me, Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable in the televised debate,” she said on the Sunday morning show.
She further noted recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal amongst others – including this outlet – addressed how White House aides covered up Biden’s mental decline over the past four years.
The report said aides formed a tight circle around the 82-year-old Democrat to limit his in-person interactions.
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Staffers kept meetings short and controlled access, top advisers acted as go-betweens and public interactions became more scripted.
“And yet he insisted that he could still run for president. We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats,” Crawford said during the year-end correspondents roundtable on CBS’ Face the Nation.
“It could have changed the scope of the entire election.”
As recently as September, 2022 a Harvard/Harris Poll showed Biden’s approval was underwater while the majority of voters “have doubts” about his mental “fitness” for office, as Breitbart News reported.
The poll also showed that 56 percent also said they “have doubts” about Biden’s mental “fitness” for serving as president, while only 44 percent said he was “mentally fit.”
This number included 67 percent of independents, 85 percent of Republicans, and only 18 percent of Democrats.
Democrats and White House reporters are also yet to publicly acknowledge just who was actually running the country as Biden’s “obvious cognitive decline” became more evident – publicly and privately.