Joe Biden’s disjointed remarks during a speech on Monday confounded viewers and renewed speculation about his mental fitness.
The video: In the address in Philadelphia, Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, condemned violence amid nationwide racial justice protests and blamed President Donald Trump for the unrest.
- “Do you really feel safer under Donald Trump?” he repeatedly asked.
At one point, though, while discussing the toll of the coronavirus pandemic on America, Biden seemed to lose the plot.
- A strong start: “Do you really feel safer under Donald Trump?” he said.
- What? “COVID has taken this year, just since the outbreak, has taken more than 100 year — Look — here’s — the lives — it’s just — it’s, I mean think about, more lives this year than any other year for the past 100 years.”
The reaction: Many conservative commentators on Twitter, including Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson, said they failed to follow.
Social media strategist Caleb Hull said: “My brain actually hurts after transcribing that.”
Washington Free Beacon editor Brent Scher contrasted Biden’s prepared remarks with what the former vice president actually said.
Left-leaning biologist Bret Weinstein said the moment showed “the obvious cognitive decline of an old man.”
Trump, retweeting a clip posted by his campaign, said, “Seriously, is this what our great USA wants as its leader?”
Battle of the brains: While long prone to gaffes, Biden’s repeated failures to make sense on the campaign trail have raised questions about his mental acuity at age 77.
- Trump, 74, and his allies have accused Biden’s team using the pandemic as an excuse to keep the candidate largely out of public view to hide his manifest unfitness for office.
- The president, meanwhile, has repeatedly flaunted his own cognitive capacities.
