Former President Clinton defended former President Biden’s mental acuity amid reports that the leader was experiencing a cognitive decline.
But Clinton on Thursday did question Biden’s schedule and the strain of a series of events prior to his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign season.
“All I can say is whenever I was around him, his mind was clear, his judgment was good, and he was on top of his brief. That’s right. But look at that debate, for example,” Clinton said during a Thursday appearance on ABC’s “The View.”
“What happened in the 10 days before his debate, and what were the White House staff thinking? He went to Europe and back twice and then he went to California once and he was 80 years old,” he continued. “What the heck is he doing that for? Why was that allowed to happen? So there’s a lot of questions.”
Thirteen days before the debate last year, Biden returned from a trip to Italy for the Group of Seven (G7) summit on June 14, six days before heading to Camp David. Prior to the G7, the former president had a loaded schedule in France for the 80th commemoration of D-Day.
“I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple of times … shortly before the debate,” Biden said at the time, apologizing for his debate performance while talking to donors at a fundraiser about a week after the event. “I didn’t listen to my staff … and then I almost fell asleep on stage.”
Clinton reminded the public of the previous handicaps of former presidents and warned that the public shouldn’t focus on the past but rather the future during his discussion on “The View.”
“We know President Reagan had clear signs of Alzheimer’s in his last two years. We know Woodrow Wilson, after his stroke, couldn’t make any decisions and his wife made them,” Clinton said. “Now, some people think that’s the best of both worlds … we’re laughing about this, but it’s, in my view, we should spend more time thinking about the future.”
Clinton’s remarks come as renewed scrutiny has been placed on Biden and his age after the publication of high-profile books about the 2024 election. Earlier this week, President Trump ordered a probe of Biden’s mental state and issuing of executive orders.