President Joe Biden was reportedly “visibly shaking” as he got off Air Force One two weeks ago and was unable to get into an SUV on his own. This was a report not by a MAGA-inspired X account but by the Daily Mail’s Emily Goodin the week after Biden spoke at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).
“Walking slowly down the plane’s stairs, he struggled to step up into the SUV waiting to take him to the 8,000-acre Santa Barbara ranch where he and his family have just enjoyed a week-long vacation,” she wrote. “One of his Secret Service agents moved to shield him from the watching cameras, before giving him a helpful boost into the car.”
Biden’s apparently worsening condition, which plagued his July debate against Donald Trump and at least one speech given during the NATO anniversary that month in which he mixed up the names of Russian President Putin and Ukraine President Zelensksy and his VP Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, led to his replacement as Democratic nominee for a second presidential term. After endorsing Harris to take his place, Biden has all but slipped from view, albeit brief appearances, notably one with Harris on Labor Day in Pittsburgh.
Sure there are serious politics at play and we don’t dismiss that here, but let’s get down to brass tacks. There are currently two major, very bloody and brutal land wars being fueled by U.S. weapons and assistance, one in Ukraine and the other in Israel. There seems to be wide acceptance that Biden was not fit to run again for president, but little discussion about how he is running the country through these fraught foreign policy situations. Who is running the foreign policy if not him? Does it matter, or have we just put so much emphasis on the commander-in-chief that we’ve forgotten that this is a republic with balancing branches of government to prevent disaster if one is not able to perform at 100 percent?
We talk to conservative Daniel McCarthy, editor of Modern Age and — to show we are not making this a red-blue issue — James Carden, who writes for both the Nation and the American Conservative, about whether this is a unique moment in history as we ascertain who is really pulling the levers behind the curtain.
More from James Carden:
Will Philip Gordon Be President Harris’s National Security Adviser?
The Foreign Policy Establishment Licks Its Chops for Harris
More from Dan McCarthy: