Biden isn’t mentally up to the job

Americans are increasingly concerned about President Joe Biden’s mental fitness — and with good reason. While our nation is facing crisis after crisis — from inflation to an open border to attacks on American troops and our allies across the world — our commander in chief needs to be sharp, decisive and ready to lead.

Being mentally competent is the bare minimum. But the recent special counsel report from Biden’s own Department of Justice exposed the extent of the president’s cognitive decline — and it’s deeply alarming.

Special Counsel Robert K. Hur found that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” while he was a private citizen, including classified documents related to national security and “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.” They were in his home, garage and office for decades.

However, the special counsel declined to recommend charging Biden because he is an “elderly man with a poor memory … someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt.” This isn’t just someone’s well-meaning parent or grandparent they’re talking about, it’s our commander in chief — and these findings raise serious concerns about Biden’s ability to handle the pressures of the office.

Unfortunately, the special counsel’s report isn’t just one isolated example of a confused Joe Biden. Confusion and obfuscation are trademarks of Biden’s presidency.

Biden has described conversations with a dead or non-existent person at least nine times since taking office. Just this month, he claimed he met with “Mitterrand from Germany” during his first foreign trip as president in 2021 — but Mitterrand was the president of France between 1981 and 1995, and died in 1996. Biden also claimed he spoke during that trip with former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017.

And mix-ups have become an everyday occurrence for the struggling president. In the past few months alone, Biden referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the “president of Mexico,” called his vice president “President Harris,” claimed Russia was “losing the war in Iraq” while speaking about Ukraine and more. These are no longer “gaffes” when they’re part of a pattern.

In the meantime, Biden left Americans behind in Afghanistan, rejoined the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, allowed a Chinese spy balloon to surveil our country and failed to take action on rising crime here in the United States. If Biden is asleep at the wheel, who is making the critical national security decisions that aren’t just affecting the U.S., but our entire world?

It’s not just Republicans sounding the alarm. Democrats on Capitol Hill and close to the White House have been voicing their concerns to the press — calling the special counsel’s report “brutal” and “worse” than they predicted. One congressional Democrat admitted that Biden “does not have the normal strength to go out there and campaign.”

Even some of Biden’s closest advisors admit that his energy has diminished, significantly limiting his schedule. According to Axios, White House aides say that “it’s difficult to schedule public or private events with the president in the morning, in the evening, or on weekends.”

The result? Americans have justifiable concerns about Biden’s cognitive decline. According to an NBC poll, 76 percent of voters, including half of Democrats, say they’re concerned about Biden’s mental and physical fitness for a second term. An ABC/Ipsos poll showed that 86 percent of Americans, including 73 percent of Democrats, now say Biden is too old to serve as president. The more the American people see from Joe Biden, the more they lose confidence in his ability to handle the responsibilities of commander in chief.

I have empathy for Joe Biden’s situation. We all have loved ones who struggle with their mental acuity in their old age — but the bar can’t be so low for the president of the United States.

The unfortunate reality? Joe Biden just isn’t up to the job.

Ronna McDaniel is chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.