Unexpected Biden News Suddenly Rocks The 2024 Race

Critics have described President Joe Biden's press conference on Thursday as the "worst possible outcome" for Democrats, especially for those hoping the president will not run for re-election.

“This is gonna end in the worst possible place for Democrats. Several verbal gaffes. Does nothing to quell nerves. Yet nothing sufficient enough for Democrats to break out the political long needle on his candidacy tonight,” remarked Josh Holmes, host of the Ruthless podcast.

Kirk A. Bado, National Journal Hotline editor, noted, “So far this is a very similar Goldilocks performance to Biden’s ABC News interview: not bad enough to open the floodgates, but not good enough to silence the critics. A frustrating spot for Dems.”

Ben Domenech, editor-at-large of The Spectator, commented on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Trump, RNC benefit, while Democrats waiting to release statements hardest hit.”

Kyle Saunders, a political science professor at Colorado State University, added, “This presser going to be a Rorschach test that doesn’t lead to definitive action on its own. The problem is that this isn’t fatally bad, it’s just not that good either. Right in that no win zone. Exactly what the Ds did not need.”

On Friday morning, South Carolina Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn acknowledged to NBC that Biden is not the same person he was two years ago.

“You’re traveling with him next week, you’ve spent more time with the president than just about anybody else in the House. Is this the same Joe Biden that we saw two years ago?” interviewer Craig Melvin asked Clyburn, who had endorsed Biden in the 2020 presidential race.

“Well, look, I grew up in…” Clyburn began before being asked again, “Is it the same Joe Biden?”

“No,” Clyburn responded emphatically, adding, “I’m not the same Jim Clyburn that I was four years ago.”

Clyburn later mentioned that he doesn't believe Biden is in the same physical condition as during the last presidential election cycle.

“Mentally, I do think so,” Clyburn asserted. “He is still grasping what this country is all about.”

“He has one of the best minds that I have ever been around,” Clyburn said about Biden. “I would hope that we will focus on the substance of this man, rather than these sometimes misspoken words and phrases, and how he has run this country.”

CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has urged President Joe Biden to undergo a cognitive exam to prove his capability for the job.

“For me as a brain specialist, it was concerning to watch President Joe Biden, and it quickly became clear that I was not alone in my reaction,” the practicing neurosurgeon wrote in an opinion piece for CNN.

“Over the past week, I received more than a dozen calls, texts, and emails from medical colleagues who, like me, specialize in the brain. It wasn’t that what we noticed was necessarily new but that it was particularly pronounced, right from the start of the debate,” he explained.

“From a neurological standpoint, we were concerned with his confused rambling; sudden loss of concentration in the middle of a sentence; halting speech, and absence of facial animation, resulting at times in a flat, open-mouthed expression. To be clear, these are only observations, not in any way diagnostic of something deeper, and none of these doctors wished to suggest that was the case,” he stated.

“The consensus from the doctors reaching out to me, however, was that the president should be encouraged to undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing, and those results should be made available to the public,” Gupta concluded.

“Over the past five years, I have reported extensively on the advances in the world of treating and reducing risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia and vascular dementia. For the documentary ‘The Last Alzheimer’s Patient,’ I even went through extensive cognitive testing to demonstrate what it entailed and determine whether I had problems with executive functioning, judgment, or memory lapses, as well as blood tests to determine things like the level of abnormal proteins that may be present in my brain and my B12 levels. My sense of smell and my genetic risk factors were checked. This type of testing is not necessary for most people as a matter of routine, but every one of the brain doctors I spoke to recommended that level of examination for Biden,” he explained.

The president completed his most recent physical exam in February, where the White House said a team of 20 doctors, including a neurologist, was involved and declared him to be “fit for duty.”