President Joe Biden’s worrisome mental lapses and questions over his fitness for office resurfaced Monday after a concerning incident at a White House Juneteenth celebration.
During a gospel performance on the South Lawn, the 81-year-old president was captured on video frozen in place and staring blankly for around 30 seconds while those around him, including Vice President Kamala Harris, clapped and danced.
The bizarre moment, which saw Biden standing still with arms at his sides without blinking for over half a minute, quickly drew stinging rebuke from critics who have long questioned whether the oldest president in U.S. history remains mentally sharp enough to lead the nation.
“Why isn’t Biden moving?” the Republican National Committee pointedly asked in a social media post sharing the video.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign simply stated, “Lights are on but no one’s home.”
Why isn't Biden moving? pic.twitter.com/DA78820xcd
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 11, 2024
The incident harkened back to two separate occasions last year when Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who was 81 at the time, froze up on camera before later announcing his retirement from Congress after 2026.
For the White House, the latest high-profile freeze only compounded concerns stemming from a Wall Street Journal report last week detailing concerning mental lapses by Biden in private meetings.
Insiders say Biden frequently loses his train of thought mid-conversation and becomes confused.
The administration has repeatedly pushed back on those reports.
“Congressional Republicans, foreign leaders and nonpartisan national-security experts have made clear in their own words that President Biden is a savvy and effective leader who has a deep record of legislative accomplishment,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News. “Now, in 2024, House Republicans are making false claims as a political tactic that flatly contradict previous statements made by themselves and their colleagues.”
Yet questionable moments that raise doubts about Biden’s mental status have become increasingly frequent. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice’s special counsel referred to Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory” in its report on his mishandling of classified documents.
In May, Biden appeared to confuse the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic by years, wrongly suggesting it occurred during the Obama administration when he was vice president.
And on several occasions he has referenced former foreign leaders like Germany’s Helmut Kohl and France’s Francois Mitterrand as if they were still alive today, despite their passing decades ago.
In 2022 during a speech, Biden called out for a congresswoman who had died in a car accident a month earlier, asking “Jackie, are you here?” in a disturbing lapse of memory.
At 81, Biden is already the oldest president in U.S. history. His age and perceived mental decline have become a central issue as he mounts his re-election bid, with critics alike seizing on every new gaffe or confused statement as further evidence of his incapacity.
If re-elected, Biden would be 86 years old by the end of his second term, an unprecedented age for a sitting president that has stoked widespread uncertainty and debate over imposing age limits or cognitive testing requirements for future presidential candidates.
While the White House insists Biden remains as sharp as ever, the Juneteenth freeze feeds the continued concerns that the president’s mental faculties are not intact and Biden is not up to the monumental tasks of the office.