5 Questions Reporters Should Ask Biden at Thursday’s Showdown Press Conference

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

It has been a rare event during Joe Biden’s presidency, but on Thursday, the White House press corps will get a chance to question the commander in chief at a full press conference — as he tries to assuage concerns about his cognitive function. After Democrats seemed to be circling the wagons on Monday, opposition to his candidacy has continued to trickle out. And that means the stakes for what NSC spokesman John Kirby called the “big boy” press conference couldn’t be higher for a president still very much on the ropes.

There’s no guarantee the White House correspondents will have many more opportunities to question the president, so they must make this one count. While ABC’s George Stephanopoulos did a thorough job in his 22-minute examination last Friday night, plenty of important questions remain. Here are five which the press corps should consider asking on Thursday:

1. Mr. President: You’ve repeatedly said you had a “bad night” at the debate. Can you point voters to a “good night” you’ve had during your presidency without the help of teleprompters? One single public event from the last four years where you can say — “Don’t judge me off of the debate. Judge me off of this. This is the Joe Biden you’re getting for the next four years.”

The reason the “bad night” argument from the Biden camp has flopped so spectacularly is that Americans have not seen the president have many public, non-prompter aided good nights. It’s completely fair to ask the president which interview, which press conference, which off-the-cuff moment of any sort he can highlight to assure voters that he’s up to the job.

Without barring teleprompter-assisted moments, the answer would surely be this year’s State of the Union address — where the president was fired up and lucid. Or perhaps even Tuesday’s speech at the NATO summit. But obviously, being president is not an open book test. There are moments — such as meetings with foreign adversaries — when a president must be at his best while speaking off the cuff. This question forces Biden to address the fact that there is little publicly-available evidence that he can get by without the prompter.

2. Mr. President: If your critics are right, and you are suffering from a neurological condition, isn’t it true that you may not necessarily know it? And thus, isn’t an independent neurological exam the only way to assure the public you have the cognitive health necessary for the job?

There is simply no good reason, at this point, why President Biden has not taken an independent neurological exam. The argument that the job of president itself is a daily cognitive exam simply won’t convince the growing number of voters who believe the president has quietly abdicated many of his responsibilities. Joe Biden himself cannot answer the fundamental question that voters have about him. Only a doctor can. This question would highlight that fact, and force the president to explain why he’s making a determination best left to medical professionals.

3. Mr. President: You have repeatedly insisted over the past week that you are the best man for the job. You told George Stephanopoulos “who’s gonna be able to hold NATO together like me? Who’s gonna be able to be in a position where I’m able to keep the Pacific Basin in a position where we’re at least checkmating China now? Who’s gonna do that?” Can’t Vice President Harris do it? Is she not qualified for the job? If she is qualified, why not pass the torch to her? And if she’s not, shouldn’t you replace her as your vice president? 

It is logically impossible for Joe Biden to simultaneously argue that he is vastly more qualified than Kamala Harris to be president of the United States, and yet she is eminently qualified to be vice president. This question forces Biden to confront that reality. If he is going to stay in the race, he owes the Democratic Party a clear explanation on why he is uniquely qualified for the job, and a definitive statement on why Kamala Harris is not.

4. Mr. President: Even if you are able to assure voters that your cognitive abilities are at the necessary level for the job today, you are asking voters to keep you in power until January 2029, when you will be 86 years old. That’s 9 years longer than the average American’s lifespan. How can you possibly know what your cognitive state will be then?

He can’t. Period. It’s just flat out impossible for President Biden to give any kind of confident assessment of his cognitive abilities at age 86. He has already acknowledged a deterioration, saying at a rally last week, “I might not walk as easily or talk as smoothly as I used to.” The former is not a necessary skill for the job, but the latter certainly is. How can he be sure that decline won’t continue? This question forces the president to acknowledge the scope of the incredible ask he’s making of voters in the fall.

5. Mr. President: You’re claiming you can do the single toughest job in the world until age 86. And yet the U.S. government pays out full Social Security retirement benefits at age 67. If it’s so normal for an 86-year-old man — as you will be in 2028 — to operate at the highest level, isn’t it fair to question whether the U.S. government should be paying everyone to retire two decades earlier?

This one is a bit out-of-the box, but the president is asserting he is qualified to lead the free world at age 86. If he can do the hardest job in the world at that age, why is his government paying people 19 years younger not to do any job? Shouldn’t he take a hard look at Social Security benefits — which his own treasury department says will have to be cut by 17 percent in 2035 anyway? If he thinks 86-year-olds can work at full capacity, then he surely must believe 67-year-olds can too, right?

Joe DePaolo is the Managing Editor of Mediaite.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.