On Tuesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” CNN Contributor and Democratic strategist Paul Begala said that he isn’t sure there was a “coverup” of then-President Joe Biden’s mental condition and the American people weren’t surprised at his debate performance, but “Maybe the elites, particularly in my party, were so wanting Biden to succeed that we averted our eyes from it.”
Begala stated, “We both knew there was an iceberg, but we didn’t know how big it was. Even before the debate, the vast majority of Americans were worried that Joe Biden was too old. And after the debate, everybody, especially Democrats, were convinced that he couldn’t do it. But, I, myself, as an active Democrat, as a big Biden supporter, somebody who loves and admires him, I’m asking myself, what did I miss? They say in the book he had good days and bad, which is true. And I clung to the good days and tried to avert my eyes on the bad.”
Co-host Mary Louise Kelly then asked, “The subtitle of this book that’s making so many waves is ‘President Biden’s Decline, Its Coverup, And His Disastrous Choice To Run Again.’ Just to put the direct question to you, was there a coverup?”
Begala answered, “It’s not the word I would use, although I haven’t finished the book. But I’ve worked in the White House, and there were scores of people who saw President Clinton regularly, Cabinet members, the media, the staff. It does seem from the book that President Biden was far, far more isolated. And, in that sense, maybe they were hiding the President’s condition. I still don’t worry that he made any bad decisions or did anything that hurt the country. It looks like he conducted himself as President very well. He just wasn’t up to running again.”
Kelly followed up, “Just to press you on the use of the word coverup, the authors of the book were on this program yesterday, and one of them — Alex Thompson — said, look, if there wasn’t a coverup, why was everyone so surprised by that disastrous debate performance last summer?”
Begala answered, “Everybody was surprised except the American people. I was shocked. Maybe the elites, particularly in my party, were so wanting Biden to succeed that we averted our eyes from it.”
Later in the interview, Begala stated that “members of the Biden team misled us.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
