17 Comments

It's adorable how many left-of-center folks are dismayed by the current Biden kerfuffle. Have these folks really not paid attention until now? The Left loves to focus on Trump's lies. 'Lies' seems like a strong word for much of the relatively harmless exaggeration and nonsense that runs out of his mouth. The more harmful Lies of the Left who have effectively visited a Senile Puppet on the country the past few years seem like Lies worth focusing on. For those seriously interested in democracy in our country a useful question would be, what unelected group of individuals has really been running the country the past few years?

Expand full comment

Great interview Bari with Alex. One really nitpicking comment is that I find it curious when intelligent people use ‘hone in’ instead of ‘home in’ - shouldn’t a writer know this? And then the people who say ‘nuke-u-ler’ instead of ‘nuke-clee-er’ make me worry - especially when they are in power (like George W.) Do we just accept that this is how language (d)evolves?

Expand full comment

I think the distinction is that if you are talking about physics, it's ‘nuke-clee-er’, but if you are talking about weapons, it's ‘nuke-u-ler’.

Expand full comment

I find implausible the idea that journalists didn't intentionally quash reporting on, or studiously avoid curiosity about, the President's condition. If they did, it bespeaks an ethical confusion or a lack of self-awareness that'd be of concern to anyone and should be disqualifying for someone in your business.

Expand full comment

It’s as clear as day that the so called corporate press committed malpractice in hiding the obvious fact of Biden’s mental decline. There is zero chance that they did not know. Bari Weiss herself pretends to be shocked which is nothing but a lie. There is no way she didn’t know and she has had private conversations about it but knew she could never publicly say anything at all. So much for being always honest and transparent

Expand full comment

As to that, I would guess that many people who believed that Biden was impaired were still shocked at how obvious it was in the debate.

Expand full comment

Not shocked at all. The only shock is the fact that they mis timed giving him the drugs that hide his condition. Was that done on purpose or are they just inept and incompetent?

Expand full comment

Since you don't know these things to be true, my suggestion is that you not state them. I have no personal stake, it's just friendly advice.

Expand full comment

Great convo. Very much respect Alex for keeping journalism alive in MSM. But “conservative” media, such as Fox, Tucker, PJMedia, Townhall and others have been writing about the obvious medical issues of Joe Biden since the Basement, now Bunker campaign. It’s not as though there were isolated falls and fails. It was every month. For two years, I’ve been saying he would not seek election given the obvious issues and I’m just an ordinary news junkie.

I think the debate was a set up engineered by Obama & apparatchiks. Who do you think power couple Dunn & Bauer owe loyalty to? Clearly the King of Kalorama is directing policy. Iran anyone? Absolutely hatred for Bibi? Obama was never interested in much beyond his Middle East realignment that enables Iran to be the dominant player with Israel, an American proxy to the Mullah’s Hezbollah and other Hs.

Even if Biden was demanding a debate, would he have chosen a 9:00 start? Absurd. The thinking was simple, stop with the prevent defense. Expose the man to a wider audience after hiding him for almost 4 years. If he performed well, great! Maybe he would begin poll better. But if he performed as expected, the defenestration can begin. And on cue, the MSM did a 180. What can we learn from this highly skilled, and well executed plan? One, Jill and Hunter are idiots. 2. The DNC is a cut throat organization consumed with power. 3. Obama continues to run the show.

I think he will drop out as he will continue to see his brain defrost. Is Stephanopoulus a friendly interlocutor? Maybe in the past but new memo has been distributed. Personally, I have absolutely no empathy for this corrupt pol. He’s quite despicable.

Expand full comment

I'm in agreement with you on Biden being set up for this. The powerbrokers just want to remain in power. It has nothing to do with Biden. After doing everything they could to get Trump installed as the Republican candidate thinking he would be damaged goods from the lawfare and the one candidate that Biden could beat, their strategy fell apart as it became clear that the legal cases were going nowhere or even helping Trump. So now Biden had to go.

The media is in my view all in on this. They are pretending to be surprised to find out that Biden isn't mentally competent, but will there be any investigation into how they were duped? Real journalists would be incensed and out for blood if a Republican admin had managed such duplicity. In this case it will all be forgotten and the gaslighting will resume once a new Democratic nominee is in place.

Truly sickening stuff.

Expand full comment

The media is nothing more than puppets of the Democratic Party. They have lied and pushed false narratives for years. Brett Kavanagh, Russia collusion, the Covington high school kids, Jussie Smollet, Covid, Hunter laptop. Did they report any of those stories without bias? Don’t think so. The past 3 years, the media has either not covered or run cover for Biden. They are actually interfering with an election!

Expand full comment

Don’t forget the DEI placement of Ketanji Brown Jackson as a justice in the Supreme Court. She will be there a LONG time. She can’t define woman

Expand full comment

Alex Thompson came across as someone without a political axe to grind. I appreciate that and it makes it all the more difficult for a center left Democrat to swallow. I do wish that you would address the Gish gallop of lies vomited by Trump. Talking to you Bari as a fan of yours and the Free Press.

Expand full comment

Not even pogroms against Jews can convince Bari Weiss that the real threat is not a matter of "which Democrat" but that all Democrats are the problem...

Pathetic.

The Democratic Party of America: the Party of the Confederacy, the KKK, Jim Crow laws, Japanese internment camps, the Vietnam War, Joe Biden and the latest round of Hamas supporting pogroms.... DELENDA EST!

Expand full comment

The only ones panicking are Democratic politicians, operatives, and their media water carriers. The rest of us know Biden is senile. We raised concerns and it all fell on deaf ears so we just dealt with it. I've been asking who's running the WH for months but who cares what I think? So we just get on with life.

I'm disgusted by anyone who after seeing the debate would still vote for Biden. Above all, the president should be of sound mind. He is not of sound mind. Anyone who hate Trump that much with the only goal of voting is to keep Trump out should wake the hell up and understand their their only choices are Trump and RFK Jr, and switch their votes to RFK Jr. Even if they think he's a anti-vaxer, vaccine is just one issue and he can't unilaterally make the whole country stop taking them or requiring them. I'm not myself an RFK Jr supporter one way or the other. Just saying anyone who would vote a vegetable into the White House out of spite against Trump has lost their minds and are reprehensible. They've lost all arguments that they want what's good for anyone. They're just feeding their hate.

In conclusion, the question is not whether Biden should drop out. But who would people what so against Trump will do? Vote a vegetable on life support into the White House, the most powerful position in the world?

Expand full comment

He's dropping out. I think they want to figure out how to get around the Kamala problem first, but he cannot serve and the fact that they wanted to have Stephanopoulus do the friendly interview thing and had to admit that even that couldn't go live...

I think what we saw a few days ago wasn't a bad day - it's where Biden is right now and it's likely he'll be in worse shape by election time if he doesn't get a long, needed rest. I feel bad for what they're doing to him. If I make it to 81, I'd like the people around me to let me relax and take care of myself. Maybe take up golf, since I'd apparently start at a 6 handicap, and that would be pretty cool.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Trump obviously is still vigorous, enviable, really, for how he gets around at 77. But... his responses were not presidential. It's not that he lied any more than any politician lies (which is to say if they aren't lying at least six times a minute, that's notable in and of itself). He rambles. He misses slam dunks because he's caught up in some petty point he wants to make from the last question. Kamala might actually be able to hold her own in a debate with him, and that would sink his candidacy. Certainly, a competent candidate would wipe the floor with him.

Lost in the drama of our nation's 248th birthday is that we have a presidential race that's truly horrifying for so many reasons. And a deficit that threatens to destroy our economy while one party seems to be cheering and the other party is "concerned", but incompetent.

Expand full comment
founding

I’m calling it now. Hes not dropping out. These politicians are all megalomaniacs. Feinstein died in office, Pelosi and McConnell aren’t retiring.

It has interesting impacts on our lives being governed by the elderly. Why do you think we locked down so hard during Covid? Because its dangerous to the elderly and the elderly run the country.

Boom, wisdom bomb dropped!

Expand full comment