- The president appeared to stop moving completely for almost a minute.
- This moment came after an article questioned Biden’s brain power.
President Joe Biden sparked concern Monday night when he appeared to freeze for nearly a minute before his speech became incomprehensible during a lively Juneteenth celebration at the White House.
At next week’s pre-National Day event, the commander in chief appeared to bypass while the rest of the crowd, including Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, accompanied the live band.
Philonise Floyd, brother of the late George Floyd, was flanking Biden on his left and eventually noticed the worrying pause he was taking and wrapped her arm around him in an apparent effort to help him.
Floyd managed to get a response from Biden when he extended a punch in his direction, which the president met with his own fist.
But Biden would break down even further when he gave a speech after the musical performance.
The president delivered a message on Juneteenth to the audience, but suffered another deeply off-putting moment when his speech became blurred beyond comprehension.
“She knows loss…she knows…(inconsistent) that our freedom can never be guaranteed,” he said.
During a coherent part of the speech, Biden said, “This day reminds us that we still have much work to do.” Let’s keep walking. Let’s keep the faith.
Before the attempted speech, the aging leader was seen taking a large gulp from a bottle filled with red liquid that may have resembled a Gatorade bottle with the packaging removed.
The president was visible in the front row for most of the evening. He sat for most of the concert, seemingly enjoying himself, but remaining seated while some audience members got up and danced for two hours.
The White House hosted a number of artists at the event, including Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, rapper Doug E. Freshand and Kirk Franklin.
The evening was hosted by actor Roy Wood Jr., who praised Biden and Vice President Harris for their work with the Black community. He gave brief lessons on African American history between musical offerings during the event.
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Harris also took to the podium, identifying this year’s Juneteenth holiday as a day of action for voting rights ahead of the all-important November election.
In a moment of unabashed levity, Harris returned to the stage later for an unscheduled dance with gospel singer Kirk Franklin.
In 2021, Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday commemorating the day in 1865 when the last of America’s slaves learned they had been emancipated.
On Monday, Biden warned the Black community – 90% of whom voted for him in 2020 – that “old ghosts” in new outfits – his Republican competitors – were on the rise, working to seize their freedoms and restrict their access to voting.
In recent polls, Biden has struggled to match the historic support Democratic presidential candidates have garnered among black voters — numbers he will need to attempt a second term.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an explosive report on Biden’s cognitive decline, which has reportedly become evident to dozens of top officials over the past few months.
More than 45 Republican and Democratic party and staffers offered insight on the sensitive topic, citing recent hiccups that they found concerning.
While the White House maintains the 81-year-old is still doing his job well, the dozens of D.C. insiders who spoke with the Journal disagree — describing a president who speaks today hui so quietly that some even have difficulty understanding what he is saying.
Others have pointed to the POTUS’s waning grasp of important policy details and his growing reliance on memos and impromptu offers from aides.
“You couldn’t be there without feeling uncomfortable,” an anonymous source said of a meeting with Biden during critical negotiations over congressional funding for Ukraine aid in January.
During the meeting, the president reportedly moved so slowly that it took him about 10 minutes to greet the twenty negotiators summoned.
When the meeting began, Biden, the longest-serving U.S. president in history, began reading from his notes, generally outlining the need to give money to Ukraine.
This struck many observers as odd, sources said, given that everyone present agreed on the need for additional direct funding for Ukraine.
The meeting was called as a strategy session to develop a plan to pass a funding plan through Congress — although Biden seemed to fully understand that, according to sources in the room.
Some said they also had difficulty hearing from the president as Ukrainian officials begged the United States — seen as a key and capable ally — for munitions.
Biden further deferred most of the conversations to other participants, several said — to the point that he was not included in most of the conversation. When questions were asked directly, he turned to the employees.
In another instance that month, this one not mentioned by the Journal, Biden mixed up the names of two of his Hispanic cabinet secretaries, sparking more speculation about his mental abilities.
In a matter of weeks, he publicly forgot the names of the widow of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and a German chancellor who died in 2017, in addition to confusing the leaders of far-flung Egyptian and Mexican countries during a press conference where he was asked specifically about his memory.