From awkward flubs to the controversy that doomed him: How all of it went incorrect for Joe Biden | EUROtoday

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President Joe Biden has known as off his re-election bid after many weeks of nail-biting hypothesis in regards to the 81-year-old’s health for workplace, with myriad distinguished Democrats — together with film stars like George Clooney and trusted political allies like Rep. Adam Schiff — pushing for him to drop out of the race in opposition to challenger Donald Trump in favor of a youthful candidate.

Biden’s well being has been a priority since his unsuccessful 2008 run on the presidency, some 20 years after surviving two life-threatening mind aneurysms. His cognitive skills have been on voters’ minds since he took workplace in January 2021.

A full bodily examination throughout Biden’s first yr within the White House discovered him to be “a healthy, vigorous, 78-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the president, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” in keeping with private doctor Dr. Kevin O’Connor. In a six-page abstract of the checkup, O’Connor chalked up Biden’s “perceptibly stiffer and less fluid” gait to gentle nerve harm, and an “increasing frequency and severity of ‘throat clearing’ and coughing” to esophageal reflux.

As the year progressed, Biden’s health came under increasing scrutiny. After falling off a bicycle that June near a home he owns in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, an uninjured Biden said his foot had gotten caught on a toe clip and told the accompanying press pool, “I’m good.” During Biden’s successful 2020 campaign, he reassured the public that he considered himself a placeholder who would restore normalcy to the Oval Office while the Democratic Party developed fresh candidates for the next election. The apparently selfless notion was also the practical way forward: a mere five in 10 registered Democrats said in an October 2022 AP-NORC poll that they wanted Biden to run for a second term.

In June 2023, Biden fell on stage after tripping over a sandbag at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. A few months after that, speculation about Biden’s health intensified when, at a Manhattan campaign event, he recounted an anecdote, then repeated the same story again “nearly word for word,” according to a pool report.

Things finally came to a head for Biden following his disastrous performance against Trump at the first presidential debate of 2024, which convinced many Democrats that Biden would doom the party’s chances of defeating Trump.

Today, less than 25 percent of voters consider Biden to be “mentally sharp,” a decrease of six points since January and a drop of nearly half since fall 2020, a Pew Research Center poll showed—along with a four-point advantage for Trump at the ballot box.

Here’s a look at how things went downhill for Biden:

Jan. 22, 2024: While meeting with the White House Task Force on Reproductive Rights, Biden thanked attendee Jen Klein, his gender policy adviser, then singled out “Secretary Becerra, sitting right next to her, for the leadership in this task force,” lauding Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. However, the man next to Klein was Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; Becerra had dialed in to the meeting via Zoom.

Feb. 7, 2024: Speaking at a New York City fundraiser, Biden recounted an interaction he said he had with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the 2021 G7 summit. In fact, Biden had been speaking with Chancellor Angela Merkel at the confab; Kohl died in 2017.

Feb. 8, 2024: When Special Counsel Robert Hur probed Biden’s possible mishandling of sensitive government documents, he found no evidence of criminality. However, in a report issued after the investigation was complete, Hur described Biden as having “diminished faculties,” and a memory he called, variously, “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” and “poor.” Biden had difficulty recalling the precise dates of certain major events in his life, including the year his son Beau died of cancer. according to Hur. “My memory is fine,” Biden insisted at the time.

Feb. 28, 2024: Biden’s personal physician released the results of the president’s yearly physical, listing a range of mild conditions, including mild arthritis and sleep apnea, but said he was otherwise in fine health, with no indication of stroke, dementia, or Parkinson’s.

March 7, 2024: Biden delivered a confident and energetic State of the Union address, winning plaudits from Democrats along with a bit of backhanded praise from Trump, who insisted—without a shred of evidence—that Biden’s impressive performance must have been enhanced by drugs.

June 7, 2024: Biden appears with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but appears to bungle certain details while talking about a fresh round of military assistance being provided by the U.S.

June 27, 2024: At the first — and perhaps only — debate of the 2024 campaign season between Biden and Trump, Biden rambled, stumbled over words, and was, at times, nonsensical. At one point, after Biden responded to a question from moderators, Trump quipped, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he did, either.”

July 3, 2024: While meeting with Democratic governors from across the U.S., Biden says he needs to get more sleep and tells attendees that he will no longer schedule public events past 8 p.m.

July 2, 2024: Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett becomes the first Democratic lawmaker to call on Biden to drop out.

July 10, 2024: In an op-ed, Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont becomes the first Democratic senator to go public with a plea for Biden to exit the race. The same day, “multiple sources” tell CBS News that House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has plans to confront Biden about dropping out. The same day, The New York Times publishes an op-ed by actor and Biden donor George Clooney, titled, “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”

Second week of July 2024: Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, tells Biden that he is an albatross for the party, and that polling suggests he is headed for a loss against Trump in the fall. Further, Pelosi said, Biden’s insistence on a second term could sink Democrats’ chances of retaking the House, multiple sources told CNN.

July 11, 2024: At a press conference, Biden refers to Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin. Later that evening, at his first solo press conference in eight months, Biden began with another flub, referring to Kamala Harris as “Vice-President Trump.”

July 13, 2024: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly tells Biden it would be “better for the Democratic Party and better for the country if [you] were to bow out.” (Schumer denies the finer points of the report as “speculation,” but a spokesman admits the New York Democrat “conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden.)

July 17, 2024: Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a key member of the House choose committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 sacking of the US Capitol by a violent mob of Trump supporters, joins the rising refrain of voices calling on Biden to stop the race. “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Schiff mentioned in a press release.

July 17, 2024: Polling by AP-NORC exhibits seven in 10 adults and 65 p.c of Democrats imagine Biden ought to withdraw in favor of a brand new nominee. Some 50 p.c of Democrats surveyed mentioned they have been “not very or not at all confident” about Biden’s psychological colleges, a rise of one-third since February, and fewer than 30 p.c of Dems mentioned they have been “extremely or very confident” in Biden’s capacity to manipulate successfully.

July 17, 2024: Biden proclaims he has Covid.

July 18, 2024: Former President Barack Obama reportedly tells Biden, his onetime vice-president, that he ought to “seriously reconsider” his marketing campaign.

July 21, 2024 Biden formally withdraws from the race, sharing a letter on X that claims “it’s in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”