Hours after the Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report titled, Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping, a former top aide to former Vice President Mike Pence seeks to offer the newspaper some insight into ex-President Donald Trump's "mental acuity & fitness for office" as well.
The Journal wrote in its Tuesday, June 4 article: "The 81-year-old Biden is the oldest person to hold the presidency. His age and cognitive fitness have become major issues in his campaign for a second term, both in the minds of voters and in attacks on him by Republicans. The White House and top aides said he remains a sharp and vigorous leader."
Former Vice President Mike Pence's Homeland Security Secretary Olivia Troye responded to Wall Street Journal's report via X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, writing: "Hope the Wall Street Journal feels free to reach out to any one of us who worked in the Trump Admin. Happy to discuss Trump’s mental acuity & fitness for office. We can start with the closed doors discussions on milkshakes during intel briefings, windmills causing cancer, what bleach does & doesn’t do & go from there…"
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The Journal did point out that many of those interviewed "who said Biden performed poorly were Republicans, but some Democrats said that he showed his age in several of the exchanges."
But in a Wednesday morning blog, MSNBC's Steve Benen suggested that the newspaper exhibited favor towards Republicans, noting:
To bolster its thesis, the Journal appears to have relied on assessments from prominent GOP critics of the White House, including Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and his immediate predecessor, former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
In other words, the Journal relied on Biden’s Republican foes — during an election season — to substantiate one of the Republican Party’s core criticisms of the Democratic incumbent.
In a March article published by Salon, writer Chauncy DeVega interviewed University of British Columbia forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Elizabeth Zoffman, who concluded that Trump "appears to be suffering from behavioral variant fronto-temporal dementia," and that the MAGA hopeful "needs to be evaluated by neurologists who specialize in the condition."
Referring to the fact Trump confused his former GOP rival Nikki Haley with ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during a January rally, HuffPost reported that former MAGA White House press secretary Sarah Matthews pointed out those kinds of gaffes are what Haley "and other Republicans like Trump go after Biden for, but obviously Trump is not that much younger than Biden," she said.
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"He’s definitely no spring chicken," Matthews added.
