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Joe Battenfeld: Liberals who hid Joe Biden's decline question Trump's mental fitness

Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald on

Published in Op Eds

Liberal Democrats who for years covered up Joe Biden’s mental decline are now raising questions about President Donald Trump’s erratic behavior and fitness for office – even invoking the Constitution to remove him from power.

“Invoke the 25th Amendment,” Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey – who is facing a Democratic primary challenge – posted on social media.

Markey’s threat is empty because the amendment would require Vice President JD Vance to declare Trump is unable to discharge the duties of his office – an extremely unlikely scenario. Two-thirds of the Senate and House would then have to affirm Vance’s decision.

But it shows how far Democrats are willing to go to bounce Trump, who is coming off a long, rambling press conference in which he repeated himself constantly and a speech in which he renewed his threat to take over Greenland – calling it “Iceland” four times.

Trump also took a private note from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and proceeded to read it aloud, insulted some U.S. allies and repeatedly lashed out personally at U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar.

There are also bruises visible on Trump’s hands he says are due to taking aspirin, and he struggles sometimes to stay awake during events.

The president claims to be in “perfect” health and says he “aced” a cognitive exam. But some doctors aren’t quite so sure, pushing for a congressional investigation into Trump’s fitness.

Are the wheels finally starting to come off the 79-year-old Trump bus?

Trump’s behavior, such as his ability to take questions for hours during events, is so unconventional he’s moved the goalposts. Now it’s almost expected.

 

And while Trump may be making gaffes, he’s clearly not at the same stage Biden was when he was falling down stairs, making halting remarks, long pauses during debates, forgot how to get off stage, and shook hands with an imaginary person – bizarre acts that partly led to him deciding finally not to run for reelection.

But duplicitous Democrats are now planning on making Trump’s mental fitness a major issue in the mid-term election this year and beyond.

Their strategy is starting to crystallize because they have nothing positive to offer on their own and lack a deep bench to run in 2028.

This despite the fact that Democratic lawmakers and others for years hid Biden’s clear decline. It wasn’t until his disastrous debate performance in 2024 that top Democrats finally admitted Biden had to drop out of the presidential race. But even after that, liberals refused to believe Biden was showing signs of dementia.

Polls show Americans overwhelmingly believe the octogenarian Biden was too old to be president, and about half are concerned about the age of Trump, who turns 80 this year.

But it’s Trump’s lapses in behavior that has even some Republicans worried that voters will decide the president is losing it, and will penalize all GOP lawmakers who support Trump in the November mid-term election.

But it’s unclear if this plan will move any voters, especially Trump loyalists in red states.

If Democrats do gain control of even the House – which appears more and more likely – it will surely trigger a move to impeach Trump for the second time.


©2026 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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