Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer insisted that Democrats didn’t gaslight the public on President Biden’s cognitive state and hailed his accomplishments as commander-in-chief.
The top Senate Democrat also appeared to insinuate that Biden, 82, wasn’t experiencing a significant decline in his mental faculties, but sidestepped whether the outgoing president could’ve served another four years.
“Look, we didn’t,” Schumer (D-NY), 74, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday when asked about Americans who felt he and other top Democrats weren’t forthcoming about Biden’s mental acuity.
“Let’s look at President Biden. He’s had an amazing record. The legislation we passed, one of the most significant groups of legislation since the New Deal, since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, putting in 235 judges — a record,” Schumer continued.
“He’s a patriot. He’s a great guy. And when he stepped down, he did it on his own because he thought it was better, not only for the Democratic Party but for America. We should all salute him.”
For years, prominent Democrats had repeatedly shot down consternation about Biden’s age and mental acuity. Last February, for instance, Schumer was adamant that Biden’s acuity was “great” and decried any suggestion to the contrary as “right-wing propaganda.”
Last spring, the White House also began pushing back against what it dubbed “cheap fakes,” viral videos showing Biden gaffing and appearing out of it.
Then Biden had a fumbling June debate performance against President-elect Donald Trump, which sparked a mutiny among Democrats calling for him to step aside.
In private, Schumer met with and nudged Biden to throw in the towel, ABC News reported at the time. Schumer has been very tight-lipped about his conversation with Biden on the subject.
While Schumer touted Biden’s accomplishments, he avoided answering whether he believed the lame-duck president could carry out another four years as commander-in-chief.
“I’m not going to speculate. As I said, I think his record is a stellar one, and he’ll go down in history as a really outstanding president,” Schumer said.
If Biden had won another four years and served out a full second term, he would’ve been 86 years old upon its completion. At the moment, he is the oldest sitting president in US history.
President-elect Donald Trump is set to top him as the oldest president by several months if he serves out a full four years.
While reflecting on the Democrats’ electoral drubbing last November, Schumer admitted that his party made some mistakes.
“We talked about the mechanics of the legislation and the details of the legislation, and we really didn’t show the kind of empathy and concern to average — or show enough of it — to average working families who didn’t realize how much we had done and how much we care for them,” he said.
Schumer cited legislation Democrats passed on infrastructure and semiconductors as the party’s big accomplishments during its brief time with control of the presidency, House and Senate during Biden’s first two years.
“So what we’re going to do is spend a lot of time talking to working families,” the New York Democrat said.
One of the first items on the agenda for the newly sworn-in Senate will be to mull Trump’s forthcoming nominations for his next administration.
Schumer is keeping his options open and has not committed to voting to approve any of the president-elect’s selections.
“I’m waiting for this process, this reasonable process that we’ve asked for, to unfold. Thorough background checks, hearings and votes,” he said.
