The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal published a damning report about President Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities based entirely on criticism from House Republicans, one of whom contradicted the report.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told the WSJ: “I used to meet with him [Biden] when he was vice president. I’d go to his house. He’s not the same person.”
However, McCarthy, who was ousted as Speaker last year and subsequently retired, said the opposite during his negotiations with Biden at the time.
Politico reported that “McCarthy mocked Biden’s age and mental acuity in public, while privately telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations — a contradiction that left a deep impression on the White House.”
McCarthy also told reporters publicly after some of these meetings that Biden was “very professional, very smart. Very tough at the same time,” and he reportedly told colleagues in private that he found Biden to be mentally sharp, according to The Hill.
The New York Times also reported that at the time, McCarthy was telling allies that he has “found Mr. Biden to be mentally sharp in meetings.”
The WSJ also quoted prominent Biden critics including current Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) who claims to have witnessed ‘signs of Biden slipping’ behind closed doors.
However, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said she was interviewed for the piece but was not quoted in the report, suggesting it was because her comments did not align with the agenda the WSJ is push on their readers.
“Surprise, surprise—everyone attacking @POTUS is a Republican with an agenda,” Murray wrote in a post on X. “I made clear to the @WSJ regarding the January meeting on Ukraine that the President was absolutely engaged & ran that meeting in a way that brought everyone together. I’m not quoted—I wonder why.”
