Joe Biden too sick to narrate book, do events, forgot Bob Dole died?

Former President Biden is releasing a new book called “Promise Me, America.” It’s his post-presidential memoir, and I’m sure everyone is looking to hear about his decision to quit the 2024 presidential race in his own words. But notably, we will not be hearing this in his own voice. Biden was unable to narrate the audio version of the book, and he’s going to be doing far fewer events than he had planned, according to an announcement he made on social media.

“While writing the book, I was diagnosed with cancer, a disease known all too well to millions of Americans and their families. My doctors continue to be encouraged by how I’ve responded to treatment. And the prayers and kind words and well wishes from so many of you have meant more to me and Jill and our family than you can ever know.”

“Some days are better than others,” he continues. “It hasn’t stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down. What that means is, unfortunately, I won’t be able to do as many conversations about my book as I’d hoped. However, I’m hopeful the words on the page speak for themselves.”

I wish Biden well, and so should all Americans. I hope he makes a full recovery. Cancer is a terrible illness, and like most people, I know loved ones who have succumbed to it.

But I can’t help but point this out again: Right now we are halfway through Donald Trump’s second term, a term that Biden had sought to serve. Had his team successfully covered up his failing health situation, and had he won the election, he would be president right now. In reality, of course, it’s impossible to imagine him actually serving as president in such a state, and so Kamala Harris would have taken over by now.

Biden’s team maintains that he did not find out about the cancer until well after the election. Maybe that’s true. But everybody who saw Biden up close in the final year of his presidency should have known that this man was too old to be president, let alone for another four years — that age had caught up with him, and was impacting his mental faculties and his communicative abilities. He had stopped meeting with his Cabinet, wandered off during events, needed tape on the ground to serve as arrows directing him around donor meetings.

And now, according to new details from Alex Thompson and Kate Tapper in their book, “Original Sin,” in 2024, Biden appeared to forget that his old Senate colleague Bob Dole had died several years before. He also seemed to think his son Beau was still alive, fighting his own cancer diagnosis.

On X, Biden boosters complain that Thompson and Tapper were still pursuing the truth about Biden’s infirmity, prompting Josh Barro to quip: “Biden is ‘allowed’ to do whatever he wants. It’s just notable that Biden wanted to be the Democratic nominee again when he lacks the capacity even to narrate his own audiobook.”

Yeah, that’s the problem. We are now living through the hypothetical Biden second term, and we are seeing just how badly off he is. I think that’s sad for him, but it underscores just how reprehensibly his whole team acted in concealing him from us — from the American people — in order protect the lie that he could serve for another four years. And we can’t forget it.

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.