Left-wing publication Mother Jones published an article Wednesday imploring people not to discuss or speculate about Joe Biden’s declining memory and cognitive abilities because it could “stigmatize” people with dementia, in what amounts to an effective admission that the President of the United States is non compos mentis.
In the article entitled “What We Lose by Armchair Diagnosing Biden and Trump,” writer Julia Métraux warns:
“Making dementia a political weapon has far-reaching, stigmatizing effects… associating supposed bad actions with age, and aging-related health issues, can lead to these conditions being further stigmatized.”
Last week, Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report following an investigation into Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. Hur recommended against charging Biden, however, describing him as an “elderly man with poor memory.” According to Hur, Biden could not remember when he was Vice President or the date of his son Beau’s death “even within several years.”
Although Hur’s report revealed very troubling facts about the 81-year-old Biden’s cognitive abilities, Métraux believes it is more troubling for its possible consequences for America’s elderly.
“Stigma around dementia, according to the CDC, could discourage people from sharing their symptoms with their doctors,” she writes, further stating that “the report itself, according to Brenna Renn, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, psychology professor and clinical geropsychologist, used ‘damning language’ that was rife with ageism.”
Days before Hur’s report was released, Biden told an audience he spoke to French President François Mitterrand, who died in 1996, at the most recent G7 Summit. That same week, Biden said he spoke to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the same summit. Kohl died in 2017. Press pool reporting that same week indicated the elderly President struggled to use a plastic straw, and the day after Hur’s report was released, he implied that Mexico borders Gaza.
