In name, Joe Biden is America’s 46th president. His “signature” is on official documents. He is photographed periodically, whether in the Oval Office, wandering in foreign lands, or inappropriately sniffing or nibbling young children.

But he is the president in name only.

Is Joe Biden even real? As this tweet illustrates, his height varies. In one photo, Donald Trump and Barack Obama are the same height. In another, Obama is taller than Biden, and in another photo, Biden is taller than Trump. Like an Escher print, this optical illusion begs the question of whether there is more than one “Joe Biden.”

I doubt Barack Obama is growing or shrinking, and the universe isn’t big enough for more than one Donald Trump. So, it must be Biden who’s changing.

The Wall Street Journal, taking a break from bashing Donald Trump and his supporters, published a long-overdue piece of serious journalism, “How the White House functioned with a diminished Biden in charge.”

This article was years late, but better late than never.

Image: YouTube screengrab

The article’s timing is convenient, as Trump is less than a month away from becoming president. He has been the de facto president since Election Day, while Biden appears to be on a slow glide toward a memory care facility on a Delaware beach.

President Biden was treated like a child, as the article described:

Presidents always have gatekeepers. But in Biden’s case, the walls around him were higher and the controls greater, according to Democratic lawmakers, donors and aides who worked for Biden and other administrations. There were limits over who Biden spoke with, limits on what they said to him and limits around the sources of information he consumed.

Throughout his presidency, a small group of aides stuck close to Biden to assist him, especially when traveling or speaking to the public. “They body him to such a high degree,” a person who witnessed it said, adding that the “hand holding” is unlike anything other recent presidents have had.

This isn’t from one or two anonymous or unreliable sources that corporate media like the New York Times or CNN relies on to confidently declare Trump is urinating on Moscow beds or raping eccentric women in upscale department store dressing rooms.

Instead, this story is sourced from Biden’s inner circle:

This account of how the White House functioned with an aging leader at the top of its organizational chart is based on interviews with nearly 50 people, including those who participated in or had direct knowledge of the operations.

Special Council Robert Hur described Biden “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” American nursing homes and memory care facilities are filled with such men. But the Oval Office?

Biden was a toddler, the WSJ noted:

At events, aides often repeated instructions to him, such as where to enter or exit a stage, that would be obvious to the average person. Biden’s team tapped campaign co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Hollywood mogul, to find a voice coach to improve the president’s fading warble.

Yet Biden’s handlers and media cheerleaders stayed silent and gaslit the public about how well Biden performed as commander-in-chief.

Ten months ago, Morning Joe Scarborough offered his own Biden confabulation, confidently asserting:

“F-you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever.”  

Mitch Landrieu, a former senior adviser to Biden and co-chair of his re-election campaign, told NBC News:

“This kind of sense that he’s not ready for this job is just a bucket of B.S. It’s so deep your boots will get stuck under.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas echoed:

“The most difficult part about a meeting with President Biden is preparing for it because he is sharp, intensely probing and detail-oriented and focused.”

Gaslighting knows no international boundaries. This past July, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer assured us Biden appeared mentally sharp and was “on really good form” after their meeting at the NATO summit.

Biden is not the only one.

Rep. Kay Granger, an enfeebled Texas Congresswoman, has been missing from Congress for the past six months. She is reportedly residing in a memory care or assisted living facility. Like the White House is doing for Biden, her staff and family kept this under wraps.

Peggy Noonan, a WSJ columnist, having tiptoed around the matter since at least 2020 finally acknowledged the obvious:

The president has been in apparent cognitive decline for some years, perhaps since before taking office, and wasn’t fully up to the job. His family and friends, top White House staff and other administration officials covered it up. Some no doubt thought his presidency was good for the country and some, perhaps, good for them.

After propping Biden up for years and now that he is heading out the door, the media admits they kinda sorta knew all along that Biden had dementia and can tut-tut over this massive coverup, dancing around their complicity in one of the worse political and journalistic scandals in history.

Lies, lies, and more lies. This is truly “The Big Lie.” Borrowing a Watergate phrase, “What did they know and when did they know it?”

His cabinet certainly knew:

Interactions between Biden and many of his cabinet members were relatively infrequent and often tightly scripted. At least one cabinet member stopped requesting calls with the president, because it was clear that such requests wouldn’t be welcome, a former senior cabinet aide said.

Yet they claimed Biden was sharp and focused. He was so intensely probing that he hardly met with his cabinet:

Over four years, Biden held nine full cabinet meetings—three in 2021, two in 2022, three in 2023 and just one this year. In their first terms, Obama held 19 and Trump held 25.

When did they know? Was this why Biden campaigned from his basement in 2020? Did Obama know Joe was losing his marbles as vice president and, in 2016, promoted Hillary Clinton rather than his natural successor, his vice president?

Who has been running the country these past four years?

Jake Sullivan? Anthony Blinken? Susan Rice? Barack Obama? Jill Biden? Three-quarters of Biden’s top cabinet picks worked for Obama. This unelected cabal usurped the will of the voters, assuming dubiously that Biden was legitimately elected.

Who opened U.S. borders? Who pushed the war in Ukraine and keeps poking the Russian bear closer to nuclear war? Who has been prosecuting Trump and his advisors and supporters? Who is appointing judges and other key government officials?

Who pardoned 8,000 criminals, including 37 on federal death row? Who is instituting last-minute rules and regulations to thwart Trump and the DOGE commission? Who is leaving political landmines in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere?

America has a shadow government, not an elected president. Anyone who challenges the narrative is a conspiracy theorist. Videos of Biden getting lost or falling were explained by the White House as “cheapfakes.” MSNBC claimed Biden wandering off at the G7 summit was a “deepfake.” These are words that obfuscate their lies.

The executive branch parroted the commander-in-chief’s charade and lies, which followed Biden’s illusion of competence. The FBI and DOJ lied about the Trump-Russia collusion, Jan. 6, Hunter Biden’s laptop, and the handling of classified documents.

The CDC and NIH lied about most things related to COVID-19. The FDA lied about COVID-19, other vaccines, and therapeutics. The DOD and State Department lied about Ukraine and Afghanistan. The Treasury Department lied about inflation, and the Department of Labor lied about employment numbers.

This is the real insurrection, a group of nonelected bureaucrats deceptively taking over the executive branch and running the country. Why are we hearing about it only now rather than years ago?

Never mind Woodrow Wilson’s debilitating stroke, or FDR’s rapidly declining health, Biden’s dementia, and coverup by the bipartisan ruling class and corrupt media is a scandal for the ages.

If Biden is not calling the shots, are his decisions legally binding? Senator Tom Cotton summarizes this potential constitutional crisis, although I wonder why he or any other elected official waited four years to state the obvious:

Contracts, wills, and other legal actions are null and void if a party is mentally incompetent, as Joe Biden obviously is. The Congress and the Trump Department of Justice should investigate whether these pardons for depraved murderers are binding.

Who is making these decisions?

Will the last four years have to be adjudicated to the U.S. Supreme Court? Where is Congress? Why are myriad government officials who swore an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution” silent or complicit?

In the meantime, who the hell is running the country?


Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph, and email brianjoondeph@gmail.com.