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BELIEVE YOUR OWN EYES  
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Tyler Austin Harper
July 16, 2024
The Atlantic
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_ We are ask us to believe that the debate was just one bad night,
that presidents can have 90-minute stretches of befuddlement. We are
asked to believe that this will not happen again. We are asked not to
believe our own instincts, our own senses. _

Joe Biden, by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 

Last night, NBC aired an interview that Lester Holt conducted with Joe
Biden, the most recent in a series of unscripted events designed to
ease voters’ worries after the president’s disastrous June 27
debate. It is hard to imagine this latest performance doing that.
Biden was defensive and rambling. When Holt asked
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he could be sure there wouldn’t be a future repeat of his debate
“episode,” the president at first looked confused, asking, “What
happened?” and then let out an indecipherable noise
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claiming no such repeat would occur.

This was only Biden’s latest less-than-confidence-inspiring public
appearance. During an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on
July 3—also defensive, also rambling—Biden said
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don’t think I did” watch his own debate. During last week’s NATO
summit, he initially introduced
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President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” and later
referred to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.” On Sunday
night, the president delivered an Oval Office address in response to
the failed assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Although
his remarks
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heartfelt, his delivery was flagging and often garbled. He repeatedly
called the “ballot box” the “battle box.” He seemed to come
perilously close to saying that we need to “make America great
again” before realizing his mistake.

Biden defenders tend to dismiss these kinds of moments as mere gaffes,
or as a result of his stutter. In the face of ever more
dismal polling
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voters’ growing concerns
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the president’s cognitive ability, a spin machine of Biden aides
and allies
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to insist that Democrats should stick with their candidate
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he is the person best situated to beat Trump and that he is capable of
serving another four years. With each day, their growing list of
talking points and excuses becomes only more implausible and
irrational. These arguments require—sometimes implicitly, sometimes
outright—that the American people believe a variety of assertions
about the president that defy our own observations and experiences,
and stretch the bounds of common sense.

We are asked to believe
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are two Bidens
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The one voters see in public might frequently look exhausted and
confused. He struggles to remember names and details
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and he answers
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questions (say, about abortion) with bizarre non sequiturs (say, about
murderous immigrants). By contrast, people who spend time with the
president insist he is sharp as a tack
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in command of the issues. He allegedly
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such a packed schedule that he leaves his younger aides trying to keep
up with him.

These claims imply that it is not the job of America’s high

We are asked to believe
[[link removed](Reuters),visited%20the%20White%20House%20at] that
Biden’s apparent cognitive difficulties are not indicative of an
underlying condition, and that he does not need to prove his cognitive
health to the American public. Even though a Parkinson’s doctor
has visited the White House eight times
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eight months, and even though Biden and his team have
given inconsistent accounts
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the president’s medical exams since the debate, and even though
Parkinson’s experts have said
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he appears to have potential symptoms of the disease, the public
should accept Biden’s refusal
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take a cognitive exam and release the results.

We are asked to believe that the June 27 debate was just one bad
night
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that presidents can have 90-minute stretches of befuddlement. We are
asked to believe that this will not happen again, even though those
close to Biden have told reporters that similar incidents have been
happening more frequently
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at least this spring, and even though George Clooney, a high-powered
fundraiser for the president, has said that the Biden we saw on the
debate stage is the same Biden he has seen behind the scenes
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We are asked, by the president himself, to believe that those who want
him to withdraw from the race are “elites.”
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is despite the fact that 85 percent
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voters in a recent ABC poll said that Biden is too old to be
president, and 67 percent said that he should exit the race; 56
percent of Democrats
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the same.

est elected official to inspire public confidence and project
competence and strength to U.S. citizens, allies, and enemies. The
fact that Biden looks frail and that we often struggle to make out
what he’s saying is irrelevant. That he reminds us of our ailing
parents and grandparents is also irrelevant. All that is relevant is
his impressive policy record, and his commitment to serving another
four years.

Biden’s defenders encourage us to believe that extemporaneous public
speaking is not an important part of the president’s job. He
frequently has trouble communicating without a script, and has come
to rely on teleprompters
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in small group settings, but we are told that this is perfectly
understandable and “not unusual.” Nor is Biden’s reliance on a
teleprompter, which he sometimes has issues reading from, a sign that
anything has changed about his mental fitness. And when he
accidentally reads a cue
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loud—during a call with the Congressional Progressive Caucus on
Saturday, he reportedly read a note
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to “stay positive you are sounding defensive”—these mistakes are
just ordinary slipups.

We are asked to believe that it’s okay for presidents to keep
bankers’ hours. Biden’s aides tell reporters that they try to keep
important events within the window when he is consistently sharp and
focused, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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should not concern us that the president can be relied on for only a
quarter of the day; we should not be worried about crises that might
crop up at other times, including overnight. Although he misses the
occasional meeting
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a world leader because he needs to go to bed, this is apparently not
an issue. We are asked to believe
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presidential campaign is more taxing and stressful than being
president, and that Biden can at least handle the latter, even though
the former seems to leave him tired to the point of incoherence
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We are asked to believe that the nuclear briefcase is safe in
Biden’s hands, and will be for another four years. Although the
United States is currently entangled in Ukraine’s conflict with
Russia and although Taiwan looms as a flash point with China, we
should have no anxiety about Biden’s ability to act decisively and
with good judgment in the event of a foreign-policy crisis. It
is estimated
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the president might have only minutes
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respond to a nuclear incident; Biden, despite his hourly limitations,
will perform with competence should he be woken up in the middle of
the night with the world on the brink of Armageddon.

We are asked to believe that trying to force Biden out of the
race—to potentially be replaced by Kamala Harris, who would be the
first Black female president if elected—is an agenda being pushed
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white men [[link removed]], one
that ignores the will of voters of color. We are told that Biden is
the favored candidate of the Black community, and that Black Americans
will be furious if he withdraws, even though a
recent _Economist_/YouGov poll
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that 49 percent of Black Americans think Biden “probably” or
“definitely” should step aside, compared with 34 percent who think
he should remain in the race.

We are asked to believe
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Biden is the Democratic candidate who can beat Donald Trump, despite
the fact that the president was behind in the polls even before the
debate. As a matter of fact, Biden and his allies say, we shouldn’t
trust
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polls. Polls
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say Biden is bleeding minority voters
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show Biden losing must-win swing states are wrong
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reveal Biden’s horrendous approval rating are wrong. Any polls
that are bad
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wrong.

We are asked to believe that Biden remains the best candidate to beat
Trump after the attempt on his opponent’s life, even as that
event—and Trump’s defiant response
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it—only further highlights the apparent gap between the vitality of
the two candidates.

We are asked, implicitly at least, to believe that Biden will turn the
reins over gracefully and voluntarily to Harris in the event that he
becomes unable to perform his duties in a second term. Even though he
clings to power now, he won’t in the future.

And what are we asked _not_ to believe? We are asked not to believe
our own instincts, our own senses, our own head and heart: If you read
any of the numerous reports that say Biden’s own allies believe he
has no chance of winning
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November, then what you read is wrong. If Biden looks too old to you,
then what you see is wrong. If Biden sounds too weak and too confused
to you, then what you hear is wrong. The problem is you, and your
expectations and standards for a sitting American president.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears,”
Orwell wrote in _1984_. In 2024, this remains, as Orwell put it, the
“most essential command.”

_Tyler Austin Harper
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assistant professor of environmental studies at Bates College and a
contributing writer at The Atlantic._

_Let the best of The Atlantic come to you. Select from our free
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* Joe Biden
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