Erickson: Your sins will find you out

Years ago, a dear friend who worked for former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld invited me to join the two of them at a photography exhibit. The Secretary needed some assistance, having had shoulder surgery. He was loathe to have a lady carry his briefcase. It became my job. We walked through the exhibit of photographs and he had stories about many of the people whose portraits had been taken.

As we passed the late Chief Justice Earl Warren’s portrait on the wall, Secretary Rumsfeld commented to me that his friendship with Gerald Ford, who served on the Warren Commission, and his subsequent tenure as Ford’s Chief of Staff is what convinced him government conspiracies were impossible. He said no one in government can keep a secret. They either spill the beans or get exposed.

All these years later, Democrats are learning the lesson Secretary Rumsfeld told me. Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame now admits Democrats have told him for 18 months that Joe Biden is not fit to serve a second term. Former Meet the Press host Chuck Todd now reveals that two years ago, a Biden Cabinet secretary told him Biden was not fit to serve a second term. George Clooney, in The New York Times, admits that even at the fundraiser for Biden that Clooney hosted a month ago, Biden’s decline was obvious.

What is obvious, too, is how much deceit the American press corps and Democrats have engaged in. A month ago, at the Clooney fundraiser, a video from a Hollywood entertainment reporter went viral. It shows Biden being led off stage by Barack Obama in an awkward manner. Conservatives highlighted the video. Democrats insisted it was not true. The media largely sided with Democrats. Now, Clooney admits the Biden at that fundraiser was not the Joe Biden of 2016 or even 2020. Jon Favreau, the Obama staffer, now says on CNN he was at the fundraiser and Biden’s physical decline was obvious. A month ago, the American press corps insisted that was not so.

Also a month ago, video came out showing Biden apparently freezing at a Juneteenth celebration. Republicans highlighted the video. New York Times reporters insisted it was taken out of context. Just last week, New York Times reporters used that very same video as proof of the President’s decline.

Olivia Nuzzi is a political reporter who wrote a devastating story in New York magazine about Biden last week. She reported close Biden friends were telling her back in January that Biden could not remember them. When I questioned why it took so long for her to report this fact, she replied that these people were speaking off the record and refused to allow her to run with what they said until after Biden took the debate stage in Atlanta with Donald Trump.

In fact, that seems to be a recurring story. Whether the Cabinet secretary with Chuck Todd or the friends of Biden with Olivia Nuzzi, no one wanted to say anything publicly. But it is remarkable that Democrats attended a Biden fundraiser a month ago with George Clooney and doubled down on denying Biden had a problem. The Democrats, and many members of the press, were engaged in the very gaslighting they claim Donald Trump has done.

Competent reporters like Alex Thompson at Axios, Nuzzi at New York Magazine and numerous reporters at the Wall Street Journal have reported on the President’s cognitive decline only to be attacked by fellow journalists, not just Democrats. Now, they have proven to be correct, and the press corps has turned on Joe Biden.

The situation is not sustainable for the Democrats. But what is most troubling is that Biden and his advisers still think he can not just fight the fight but win the election. Regardless of his frailty, he and his team have lied to Americans about his condition for quite a while. Biden has been exposed. Now he is in the worst position possible for an American politician — he is both pitied for his condition and resented for lying about it. That is not something from which one can recover.

To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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