Biden hasn’t been having a great week. On Sunday, he told a touching story about a conversation he had in 2021 with a French president who died in 1996. The incident was so bad that when Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about it, she didn’t even try to spin the story. She just refused to answer the question.
As troubling as that incident was, there was an even worse moment on Tuesday, when, during a press conference, he outright forgot the name of Hamas.
“What needs to get done for the hostage deal to get resolved, sir?” a reporter asked.
Biden began:
This indirectly has a lot to do with the hostage deal and what’s going on in the Middle East — the decision on what we do relative to Israel, the decision what we do or in terms of American funding of whether we’re going to engage with the situation in Ukraine. It all goes to the question of American power. It all goes to: Does America keep its word? Does America move forward?
He continued, “There is some movement, and I don’t want uuhhh — I don’t want uhhh — well, let me be — change my words. There is some movement… there’s been a response from… the uhhhh…. the — the — there’s been a response… from… the opposition, but ummm…”
“Hamas?” the reporter asked to save him.
“Yes, I’m sorry — from Hamas.”
You have to watch it to really get a sense of how bad the encounter was.
BIDEN: “There is some movement, and I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna, let me be choose my words — there’s some movement. There’s been a response from the, uh, there’s been a response from the opposition, but um…”
REPORTER: “Hamas?”
BIDEN: “Yes, I’m sorry, from Hamas…” pic.twitter.com/wzYqFZCCjM
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 6, 2024
A new NBC News poll shows that three-quarters of voters have concerns about Biden’s physical and mental health — including half of Democrats.
“I think that [Biden’s] health and age kind of get in the way of his ability to be a good president of the United States,” said a female Democratic poll respondent from Wisconsin, who said she voted for Biden in 2020. She declined to share her name.
The findings are essentially unchanged from September, when the NBC News poll first asked about those concerns — and when more voters said they had concerns about Biden’s age (now 81) than those with concerns about Trump’s legal challenges. Trump is 77 years old.
On the question of whether Trump had the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term, 48% said they had concerns.
“Four more months of attention to Trump’s legal issues have not budged these numbers, with more focus on President Biden’s mental and physical health,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the survey with Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt.
In the new poll, a combined 76% of voters say they have major concerns (62%) or moderate concerns (14%) about Biden’s not having the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term, compared with 24% who have either minor concerns (13%) or no concerns at all (11%).
“What is most concerning is the erosion of Biden’s standing against Trump compared to four years ago,” Horwitt said of the poll. “On every measure compared to 2020, Biden has declined. Most damning, the belief that Biden is more likely to be up to the job — the chief tenet of the Biden candidacy — has evaporated.”
Yeah, when Biden can’t even remember the name of Hamas, that’s a big problem.