President Joe Biden this week made an apparent mental misstep during a press event at the White House, adding to concerns about his mental fitness for office. During the Tuesday event, the president said that there was a “profound loss of a pandemic, as I mentioned, of over 100 people dead.”
The president’s confusion appeared especially stark in the context of the event. Immediately following his statement, Biden also mentioned “100 empty chairs around the kitchen table” over the pandemic deaths.
However, earlier in the event, Biden stated that there were “over a million” deaths due to the pandemic.
Last month, the president confused the conflict in Ukraine with the earlier war in Iraq.
Biden told reporters that Russia was “clearly losing the war in Iraq.” He made a similar comment earlier the same week.
The recent concerns about Biden’s health have sparked concerns that the 80-year-old president may not have the mental capacity to serve effectively.
Did Biden fall asleep? pic.twitter.com/8Hh0urpLjd
— @amuse (@amuse) July 18, 2023
Biden’s verbal missteps also follow a number of stumbles and falls affecting the oldest president in American history.
Furthermore, a poll from earlier this year found that most Democrats do not want Biden to seek another term.
The Associated Press/NORC poll found that 26% of all Americans wanted Biden to run for a second term. However, 52% of Democrats agreed with the statement. Only a minority of 47% want Biden to run again.
Among Democrats, 40% told the pollsters that they would only “probably” support Biden in a general election next year.
A similar NBC News poll found 70% of Americans thought that Biden should not run again.
There has been speculation that prominent Democrats are preparing for a contingency in which Biden does not seek reelection next year, despite already announcing his 2024 campaign.
The concern also coincides with California Gov. Gavin Newson (D) attempting to burnish his national profile. The two-term governor recently sparked a fight with GOP candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over how each of their states are administered.
