President Joe Biden forgot who his secretary of defense was on Monday, prompting some to question his ability to govern and lead the nation. As Biden continues to stumble his way through his scarce interactions with the outside world, however, the corporate media remain quietly submissive and willfully ignorant to his failure to coherently communicate, ignoring their own treatment of Trump for non-issues while labeling cognitive decline criticisms of Biden as Russian propaganda.
In 2020, former President Donald Trump said he “aced” his cognitive test, a fact that corporate media outlets repeatedly questioned, joked about, and harped on for days. When Biden was questioned about whether he planned to release the results of his consistent cognitive decline testing, however, legacy media overlooked his lack of response.
Shortly after Trump fell ill with COVID-19 in October, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi began discussing a commission to evaluate using the 25th Amendment, forcing a transfer of power if Trump died or was incapacitated, to remove him from office. This followed other talks of invoking the 25th Amendment long before the Wuhan virus struck. But now that Biden is showing his inability to speak in public without forgetting people’s names or where he is, mention of the 25th Amendment is limited to those on the right side of the political aisle who see Biden’s fragility as compromising to the nation’s security.
This is why we have the 25th Amendment. https://t.co/IIqsxElPOG
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) March 8, 2021
https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1369291199090024449?s=20
Where are the 25th amendment folks? We had medical experts on CNN 24/7 because Twitter thought Trump might be slurring his words. https://t.co/eD84PlxjsD
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) March 8, 2021
Corporate media took the same hypocritical approach when it came to Trump’s age. When the Republican signaled he might run for president again in 2024, he was mocked by journalists for being too old while Biden was praised and defended for being “physically vigorous.”
“He’ll only be 78,” the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler wrote sarcastically on Twitter.
Boy, no one understands humor on Twitter. Yes, I know Biden will soon be 78. So Trump would be a spring chicken in four years compared to Biden if he runs for re-election.
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) November 9, 2020
Months earlier, however, Kessler attempted to defend Biden from accusations of senility, saying the Trump campaign’s advertisements in the Washington Post in August suggesting so were “just silly.”
“Anyone could put together a similar collection of Trump misstatements that make him appear like a confused old man,” Kessler wrote.
4. And while we haven't done a fact check on Biden's "old age" comments, the collection of flubs is just silly. Anyone could put together a similar collection of Trump misstatements that make him appear like an confused old man.
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) August 20, 2020
