The recent developments in Ukraine would be alarming in any context. But these events come as the 82-year-old President Biden’s apparent cognitive decline continues. Biden, of course, did not run for reelection because a secretive group of Democratic Party powerbrokers forced him out of the race, convinced that he was not up to a second term that would last until he was 86 years old.
Recently, Biden appeared to play almost no role in his final international conferences as president, the G20 summit in Brazil, and the APEC meeting in Peru. He took no press questions at either meeting. Then, in a post-summit visit to the Amazon rainforest, Biden appeared briefly, delivered a statement, and afterward just wandered off unsteadily into the woods.
Biden’s performance has done nothing to lessen fears that he is not capable of fully performing the duties of President of the United States. At the same time, he will be president for two more months. Given recent developments, those two months could be perilous indeed in Ukraine. Can a weakened Biden give the Ukraine crisis the attention and judgment it needs — as opposed to sitting by while aides do the job that should be the elected president’s?
Biden’s withdrawal from the campaign in late July solved a political problem for the Democratic Party, even though its nominee went on to lose, anyway. But Biden is still the president until January 20, and if he was not in good enough shape to campaign, why should anyone believe he is in good enough shape to govern?
On the campaign trail, Trump often brought up Biden’s competency issues. In August, I tweeted this: “Trump is right that this is a particularly dangerous period, isn’t he? The President of the United States has withdrawn from re-election because he is not mentally and physically up to the job. Now he appears to be minimally performing his role at president. And there are a lot of malign, aggressive actors in the world. That is dangerous, no?” That’s even more true now as wars worsen and Joe Biden enters his final, wobbly months as president.