More Sick Joe

PROOF OF LIFE? Biden shuffles out of his motorcade, mumbles incoherently at reporters, and ascends the stairs of the smaller AF1.

It's Biden's first public appearance since the coup to force him off the ballot. pic.twitter.com/lPUGnF0C5e

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 23, 2024

Although there was more apparent confirmation on various alt platforms yesterday that something hinky took place with Joe in Las Vegas last week, polite opinion hasn't yet mentioned it. About as close as it's come has been Newsweek, which debunked what was basically a straw man claim:

Right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk has posted a rumor that President Joe Biden had a medical emergency in Las Vegas last week and may be in hospice care, claims which have been debunked. The post contradicted the official account of the president's COVID-19 diagnosis and has sparked widespread speculation, but what are the facts?

. . . He wrote: "Got a weird lead on a story that people should look into. I got a call from a source close to Las Vegas Metro. The official story was that Joe Biden's trip was cut short last week due to COVID.

"However, according to this source, US Secret Service informed LV Metro that there was an emergency situation involving Joe Biden and to close necessary streets so that POTUS could be transported immediately to University Medical.

"Then, mysteriously, there was a stand down order and the USSS informed local Vegas PD that they were going to 'medevac' POTUS to Johns Hopkins. Apparently the rumor mill in the police department was that Joe Biden was dying or possibly already dead."

. . . A Twitter account named Global Press Corp also promoted the hospice theory, claiming, "A verified [anonymous] source has informed the Global Press team that Joe Biden is currently in hospice care and is unlikely to survive the night."

It seems as if Newsweek is combining two separate stories into one. The first, the notice to police to close certain streets to allow Joe to be taken to the hospital, followed by a stand-down order and a sudden flight back to Delaware, seems verified and was reported on Las Vegas local news last week. The second, a rumor that Joe is in hospice, is much dodgier, and the Newsweek story quotes Kirk himwself:

In his post, Kirk added: "I didn't think too much about this lead, seemed too wild to be true" and appealed for more information in an attempt to substantiate the unsavory rumor. "I want to hear if there is more to the official story than what they're telling us," he added.

Nevertheless, Newsweek concludes,

In an official report released on Monday, Biden's doctor, Kevin O'Connor, stated: "President Biden completed his tenth dose of Paxlovid this morning. His symptoms have almost resolved completely.

"His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and temperature remain absolutely normal. His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent on room air. His lungs remain clear. The President continues to perform all of his presidential duties."

The White House has not provided any indication that Biden's condition is more serious than reported.

But hasn't the problem been, at least since early June and Joe's trips to Europe, that Joe's condition has consistently seemed much more serious than legacy media has reported? Isn't that the whole subtext of the reaction to Joe's putative "bad debate night", that the problem was that Joe's actual condition was being covered up? And isn't Joe's withdrawal from the campaign pretty good confirmation that this impression was correct?

So far, the most complete and credible report on the Las Vegas episode is from Jennifer Van Laar at Red State. She links to this detailed account of what took place last Wednesday afternoon:

Officers working the president’s detail describe that Wednesday as chaotic from the very start. President Biden was already way behind schedule before the incident. Several sources said things really went haywire after he had been present at a famed local Mexican restaurant called Lindo Michoacan, where he was doing the rounds shaking hands and greeting donors.

Then suddenly, when he was supposed to be scheduled to deliver the UnidosUS speech, all hell broke loose.

Several law enforcement officers on duty that day were informed over the radio that the president was dealing with an unspecified medical emergency. Far from a case of the sniffles, this was sent out on encrypted police airwaves as if something akin to a five-alarm fire had broken out.

She then links to anotbher version behind a paywall in The New York Times:

Mr. Biden seemed much more frail as he stepped into a dining room at a Mexican restaurant, the Original Lindo Michoacán Desert Inn. Walking more slowly and looking pale, Mr. Biden took group selfies and squeezed next to patrons in a booth as an upbeat Latin song playing over the restaurant speakers.

. . . He then disappeared from public view for nearly two hours while reporters waited outside the restaurant in extreme heat, pacing along the president’s motorcade and knocking on the car windows to ask staff members for an update.

And then a link from the BBC:

We waited. And waited. In the searing Nevada heat we spent more than 90 minutes in the press vans with the entire motorcade stalled. It was by now obvious that something was wrong. Suddenly, an email dropped from a BBC colleague to say the host of his next speech venue had announced, on stage, that Mr Biden had just tested positive for Covid.

As I tried to approach a White House staffer to find out what was going on, I was abruptly ordered to get back in my van, and told that we were leaving. The motorcade began rolling and we were speeding our way through the suburbs of Las Vegas, destination unknown. The campaign was changing course. Suddenly, amid the flashing lights and police outriders, the airport came into view. The president was going home to Delaware to recover from Covid, the campaign trip was over.

So the story, even from sources as respectable as the New York Times and the BBC, is that last Wednesday afternoon, Joe looked frail and pale, he disappeared from public view for about two hours, and then it was announced that he had COVID. But whatever he did have, as I discussed in yesterdays post, it was serious enough that there was a question over whether he should go to a Level 1 trauma center, which was then resolved in favor of flying him back to Delaware -- except that possibly taking him to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore was apparently in the mix then as well.

All anyone can think is that four years into COVID, which is now regarded as pretty much the same as the flu, this isn't how people normally react to it. What compounds the problem is the increasing number of troubling incidents over the past couple of months followed by Joe disappearing that are nevertheless discounted as Joe being simply tired, overworked, or having a bad night -- except that they keep happening, and each time he returns, he seems to be a little worse.

It's hard to avoid thinking the White House is covering things up, and this part of the story simply isn't over. The only thing that would end it for sure would be for Joe to announce his resignation in tonight's TV address, but I think that's still farther down the road. After all, they're behind him 100%.