Report: Joe Biden Asked for Help to Recall the Word ‘Veteran’

President Joe Biden meets with Indonesia's President Joko Widodo in the Oval Office of the
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Wendell Husebø

President Joe Biden has a difficult time remembering common words such as “veteran,” the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, raising concerns about the president’s political viability as he seeks four more years.

Seventy-two percent of registered voters believe Biden does not have the “mental” and “cognitive health” to serve as president, a CBS News/YouGov poll recently found, up seven points post-debate.

Biden, whom special counsel Robert Hur described as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” struggles to participate in unscripted donor events, the Journal reported, and is often helped by aides who remind him of information.

RELATED — White House on Biden Forgetting Year Son Died: He ‘Doesn’t Need a Reminder’ and Got the Date Right

Numerous reports have detailed Biden’s health, but the Journal’s report took aim at Biden’s memory:

At some fundraising events, the campaign allows few impromptu moments with the president, even with top donors. The campaign has long directed donors to submit their questions for the president in advance, including at an event this year in South Florida with only eight people attending, according to a donor. Biden spoke slowly and stumbled over some of his words, but he ultimately gave detailed responses, the donor said. The president seemed to have “lost a step,” the donor said, but he didn’t seem impaired.

Aides sometimes stepped in to help. At a fundraiser in New York around the time of the United Nations General Assembly last fall, Biden seemed at a loss trying to answer questions about the Middle East from people in a photo line, according to a person there. An aide whispered in Biden’s ear, the person said, and the president then answered.

During a fundraiser at the Four Seasons in New York in June 2023, Biden spoke for five to 10 minutes and then took a few questions, said attendees who bought a ticket. They were struck by how fragile he seemed. At one point, Biden couldn’t recall the word for “veteran.” The president asked the group to help him find the word, saying he wanted to refer to a person who had served in the Army or Navy.

An entertainment executive who had lunch about six weeks ago with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the co-chair of the Biden campaign, told the Journal that he asked Katzenberg if Biden was too “incapacitated” to win in November. “No. Absolutely not,” the executive recalled Katzenberg’s claim. “I see him, I talk to him all the time. He’s solid. The mental acuity is there.”

The report underscores concern about if Biden will drop out of the race and if he is actually making policy decisions. Hunter Biden is “calling the shots” behind the scenes, former President Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday.

“It looks to me like he may very well stay in. He has an ego and he does not want to quit,” Trump said. “I’m hearing that Hunter is calling the shots.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Monday a neurologist visited the White House “three times” during Biden’s time in office.

Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.

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