Joe Biden's Cancer Diagnosis Shouldn't End Scrutiny of the Cognitive Decline Cover-Up

Ignore David Axelrod's suggestion that questions "should be more muted and set aside for now as he's struggling through this."

Former President Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis has prompted entirely appropriate expressions of sympathy from notable Republicans, Democrats, world leaders, and the public at large. Extending well-wishes, thoughts, and prayers to political opponents is a humane and civilizing instinct that might, in some small way, improve the U.S.'s fraught political climate. Regardless, it's just the right thing to do.

But the former president's prognosis must not bring a premature end to the conversation about whether Biden was cognitively fit for office in 2024. On the contrary, the public should demand answers and accountability on this topic with renewed vigor—precisely because of the well-founded mistrust engendered by Biden's family members and inner circle, Democratic elites, and to some extent, the mainstream media. The reason we cannot necessarily accept, at face value, that Biden himself just learned about his diagnosis last week, is due to Biden's own actions and the actions of his senior advisors, campaign staff, and party leaders.

It might very well be the case that Biden only recently became aware of this very serious health problem. But the timing is suspicious, coming just after the release of special counsel Robert Hur's taped interviews with Biden, in which the lie that Hur had mischaracterized Biden as an "elderly man with a poor memory" was definitively exposed. The Biden White House had attempted to discredit Hur; Biden himself raged at a press conference and blamed Hur for bringing up Beau Biden's death. The tapes, obtained and released by Axios, explicitly contradict Biden's version of events—it was the president who first referenced the death of his son, evincing confusion over the exact date.

If anything, Hur was too gentle with Biden. He patiently listened to the president's rambling, incoherent anecdotes, and attempted to steer him back to the topic at hand: alleged improper storage of classified documents. Biden's behavior during the five-hour interview raised serious questions about his fitness for office at that time, let alone whether he remained sharp enough to perform the most demanding job in the world for another four years.

Top Democrats, however, echoed Biden's talking points that behind closed doors, the president was at the top of his game. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) said Biden's mental acuity was "as good as it's been over the years," and that the pair would talk several times a week. The message from virtually every Democratic leader who interacted with Biden was the same: Hur is a partisan actor and shouldn't be trusted, Biden is absolutely fine. Everyone knows that's false.

And it's not just the Hur tapes. Original Sin, the new book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, is slated for release later this week; excerpts from the book have already publicized the elaborate steps taken by Biden's campaign staff to shield him from press scrutiny. The inescapable conclusion is that party leaders were well aware of Biden's diminished capacity and were more than willing to mislead the voters—their own voters—about that fact.

It would be very convenient for the Democratic leadership, then, if the media and the public simply moved on from the Biden cover-up. Unsurprisingly, at least one prominent Democratic pundit is advising just that. David Axelrod, former advisor to President Barack Obama and current CNN talking head, said on Sunday that conversations about Biden's cognitive decline "should be more muted and set aside for now as he's struggling through this."

That's a preposterous suggestion made in service of an obvious, partisan cause. Biden and his handlers steadfastly maintained that he was fit for office and should seek a second term, even amidst mounting, well-founded concerns about his health. They attempted to pull a fast one on the American people, and they were caught.

It is perfectly possible to remain respectful, magnanimous, and well-meaning toward Biden in terms of his battle with cancer while continuing to seek answers about who knew what, and when.