Bill Clinton, the former president, refuted recent claims suggesting that President Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities have declined to the point where he is unable to lead the nation. Clinton emphasized that he was “never” concerned about the 82-year-old president’s capability.
“I recently met with President Biden and found him to be in good condition,” Clinton, aged 78, told CBS Sunday Morning. This was in response to allegations made in the book “Original Sin,” which suggested that Biden’s mental acuity had weakened significantly, forcing a council of advisors to manage the White House toward the end of his term.
“I’ve never encountered a situation that made me question if Biden was still capable,” Clinton stated, affirming his confidence in Biden’s mental sharpness.
Clinton also said he didn’t read the Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson book, and dismissed its alarming claims from White House insiders, according to Mediaite.
“I didn’t want to because he’s not president anymore, and I think he did a good job,” Clinton said. “I think we are facing challenges today with our president in our history. Some people are trying to use this as a way to blame him for the fact that Trump was reelected.”
Clinton added that the only doubts he ever had about Biden were during his reelection campaign, when he wondered whether the 82-year-old would be able to keep up with the grueling demands of the job until his term ended at the age of 86.
“The only concern I thought he had to deal with was, could anybody do that job until they were 86?” Clinton said. “We’d had several long talks. He was always on top of his briefs.”
“Original Sin” was published in May with reports that a “politburo” of longtime Biden aides — and even family members like First Lady Jill Biden and the president’s son Hunter — were really running the country, while the president served as little more than a figurehead.
It also claimed Biden was largely incapable of maintaining his focus for extended periods of time, and that his administration actively worked to conceal his decline from the public even as he pursued a second term in the white house.
Biden ultimately dropped out of the presidential race in July after a disastrous and largely incoherent performance against Donald Trump during their presidential debate.
Allies of Biden have denied the allegations in “Original Sin,” insisting that its authors didn’t know what they were talking about.
“The people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us, and they didn’t see how hard Joe worked every single day,” former first lady Jill Biden told “The View” earlier in May.
The book’s release coincided with the news that Biden had been diagnosed with an “aggressive” prostate cancer.
