Opinion: Covering for Biden endangered America — and must be investigated

In a shock to almost no one, President Joe Biden announced yesterday that he will suspend his 2024 reelection campaign. That forced announcement came on the heels of massive pressure from within the Democratic Party for Biden to drop out.

For two years, in multiple columns, I have been saying that Biden would not be the Democratic nominee for president come November 2024.

Just to play several of the greatest hits, going back in chronological order:

· If Biden doesn’t ace the first debate, will he be replaced at the convention? (June 15, 2024)

· Democrats can still jettison Biden as an ‘August Surprise’ (May 18, 2024)

· This one problem is why Democrats must replace Biden at the convention (April 13, 2024)

· Will Jill Biden save the Democrats? (Dec. 13, 2023)

· Leading Democrats need to go to the White House to ask Biden and Harris to step aside (Oct. 21, 2023)

· Are we witnessing self-created or intentional abuse of our elderly politicians? (Aug. 5, 2023)

· When is the optimal time for Biden to drop out of the race? (July 8, 2023)

· Do Democrats need a Nixon-like intervention with Biden? (May 5, 2023)

There are more, but these answer the mail.

It’s not that I have better deductive political powers than anyone else or better insider information. It’s just that based upon real-life experience, it was obvious to me that, cognitively speaking, President Biden was slipping fast and would not be a viable option for the Democrats in November.

That real-life experience being, first, watching relatives and colleagues go through progressive Alzheimer’s and recognizing similar symptoms in President Biden. And second, having worked on three presidential campaigns in the past; knowing the timing sequence; and realizing the Democrats were quickly painting themselves into a very deep corner.

Absolutely none of this was necessary. This was a shameful — but purposeful — form of elder abuse by all who covered up for the rapidly declining Biden. A list that seemingly includes: the Biden family; Biden staff; Vice President Kamala Harris; Harris’s staff; many members of Congress; much of the mainstream media; personal physicians; and certain celebrities in Hollywood.

Some presumably wanted to keep Biden in office for as long as possible for their own self-interests related to money and power. All wanted to keep Biden in office for as long as possible because they believed he was still their best hope to defeat former President Donald Trump.

Once Biden began to malfunction during the June 27 debate against Trump, the rats began to jump from the “Good Ship Biden.” No more stage managing. No more cover ups. The American people — as well as the rest of the world — just witnessed the commander in chief of the armed forces of the most powerful nation in the world self-destruct before their very eyes.

But the truth is, those covering up for Biden all these many months knew all of that long before the American people or any world leaders. They knew it, they hid it — and it has now spectacularly blown up in their faces.

Like the wizard from “The Wizard of Oz,” it now seems obvious that certain Biden family members, staff members and various sycophants hoped to operate the levers to Biden’s mind behind that heavy curtain just long enough to get him to Election Day. Their epic failure will go down in history as one of the worst political gambles of all time.

But their reckless gamble was also a direct assault upon the national and economic security of the United States. As Ohio senator and Trump’s recently announced vice-presidential running mate J.D. Vance just posted : “If Joe Biden doesn’t have the cognitive function to run for re-election, then he certainly doesn’t have the cognitive function to remain as Commander-In-Chief.”

Indeed. This is a very serious point.

For months now, myself and others have been asking: If Biden is not up to the task, who has been assuming his duties behind the scenes? Who has been pretending to be the commander in chief as parts of the world burn and World War III brews on the battlefields in Ukraine?

Tens of millions of Americans voted for Biden in 2020. Much like the fictional movie “Dave,” where a Machiavellian chief-of-staff pulls the strings for a puppet stand-in “president,” the American people did not vote for nameless, faceless aides hiding in the shadows slowly subverting all power from Biden as they decided U.S. policy. This was a disastrous coverup that demands a full investigation.

Those covering up for Biden’s truly sad cognitive decline not only sought to deceive the nation, but also put its citizens in potential harm’s way because of their planned deception.

This is certainly on par with the “Nixon cover-up.” It will be interesting to note how the media  and Congress honestly and unbiasedly investigates it in the coming weeks — with a presidential election on the line.

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.

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