Summary:
Former President Joe Biden’s life has undergone a significant transformation since leaving office. Once a central figure in American politics with a packed schedule, Biden now maintains a low profile, working on his memoir and managing health challenges. Recent public appearances, such as his speech at the National Bar Association’s Centennial Convention, have raised concerns about his mental acuity and ability to communicate effectively. This shift highlights the stark contrast between his active political career and his current, quieter lifestyle.
What This Means for You:
- Political Awareness: Biden’s current state underscores the importance of evaluating leaders’ fitness for office before elections.
- Health Advocacy: His ongoing health struggles emphasize the need for transparency in leaders’ medical disclosures.
- Public Discourse: Biden’s speeches continue to influence political narratives, making it essential to critically assess their content and delivery.
- Future Implications: The scrutiny of Biden’s post-presidency could set a precedent for how former leaders are perceived and remembered.
Original Post:
Pour one out for Joe Biden. The man who spent his entire life being busy suddenly isn’t.
That’s, at least, the message one got if they saw Politico’s nightly Playbook newsletter from Thursday. Adam Wren and Dasha Burns described how Biden — for 50 years, the locus of attention on Capitol Hill — was reduced to a small staff and rare events like the National Bar Association’s Centennial Convention in Chicago on Thursday evening.
“For more than five decades, Joe Biden’s existence was not only incredibly public, but also busy: his waking hours spent surrounded by a coterie of devoted aides and strategists, his calendar filled with speaking engagements and meetings, his home a bustling and buzzing swarm of activity,” they wrote. Now, he only makes rare appearances and is shacked up at home, which is not 1600 Pennsylvania anymore.
“He’s staffed by only one or two aides and a small Secret Service detail. He holes up for hours at a time in Delaware working on his memoir with a new ghostwriter, while undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer. He flies commercial, an aide tells Playbook, with little of the luxury or exclusivity that is often associated with former heads of state. He’s still Amtrak Joe. But he’s also American Airlines Joe.”
“He’s very in the wild,” a Biden insider is quoted as saying. “His footprint is significantly smaller, and it’s sort of shocking.”
Yes, poor, poor Joe. While no one wishes either the ravages of age or American Airlines on anyone, we can only avoid one of them and Joe thought he could dodge both. Thus, we had a president who, perhaps from the beginning of his term in office but certainly sometime before the end of it, was not in his right (or any) mind. Yet here we have the lachrymose “lion in winter” profiles from Capitol Hill’s favorite insider outlet.
And then Joe spoke in Chicago during one of his rare public appearances, and we realized why we need not shed a tear for the man, but instead for the country who had to endure him for four years.
Giving a speech in which he painted, for the millionth time, a dark vision of America without the Democrats in charge, Biden couldn’t find the stage and slurred through prepared remarks about how we’re all sliding toward fascism or something. It’s kind of hard to listen to this talk when grandpa let other people run the country for years and hid his mental condition but now wants to lecture you about honesty in government.
Anyway, here he is trying to find his way to where he’s supposed to speak:
Do you think Joe Biden is mentally well?
Former President Biden walks on stage at the National Bar Association Gala, and has no idea where the hell he is.
Frightening to think this old bag was sitting in the Oval Office a few months ago. pic.twitter.com/om7hPKF5Vn
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 1, 2025
And here’s what’s supposed to be the good stuff, where he talks about how “these are dark days, but you’re all here for the same reason I left that prestigious law firm to go to the defender’s office years ago.”
“It’s because our future is literally on the line, and we must be unapologetic of fighting for the future,” he said.
During the annual National Bar Association gala in Chicago, former President Joe Biden accused the executive branch, Congress, and the Supreme Court of undermining democratic institutions, restricting rights and freedoms, and erasing history, justice, and equality.#USA #Biden… pic.twitter.com/fV5Q1H4eka
— Ulfh3dnar (@Ulfh3dnar_) August 1, 2025
Whatever drugs they used for the 2024 State of the Union have apparently stopped working.
The rest of the speech was equally appalling, with the New York Post reporting “Biden stumbled over his words at several different points during his 20-minute remarks, in which he accused the Trump administration of waging an existential’ fight with minority communities and touted his civil rights record.”
Ah yes, Joe “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump then you ain’t black” Biden makes another appearance.
The speech itself isn’t necessarily the problem, although it’s part of it. This is a man who, just a little over a year ago, thought he had another four years of the presidency left in him — and that he was going to hold on as long as possible despite a debate performance that revealed he was too senescent to think straight if the words were on the teleprompter. (He’s struggled with those, though, too.)
Now, we’re expected to feel sorry for the fact that this man’s universe is so small. He’s taking American Airlines, folks, and speaking to lawyers in Chicago. No joke. Corn pop was a bad dude, and a lying dog-faced pony soldier. Whatever.
Or perhaps, instead of remembering how tiny Biden’s world has suddenly gotten, you should remember this: On the same day, Mike Donilon — Biden’s top political aide, and arguably the individual most responsible for covering up his declining health — testified to the House Oversight Committee that he stood to make $4 million if Biden got elected in 2024, in addition to the $4 million he was getting paid working for his 2024 campaign. Read that again after you surgically remove your jaw from the keyboard.
When were these “dark days,” Mr. Biden? Perhaps you don’t remember them, but we do.
