A long overdue ceremony was held yesterday for retired Army Captain Larry Taylor, a Vietnam war veteran who earned the Medal of Honor. He received his award yesterday from President Joe Biden, but as with most normal functions of the White House during this presidency, the event didn’t go off without a few hitches and controversies. The first of these was the fact that First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID yesterday for the third time, despite having received all of the vaccinations available to her. Joe Biden has tested negative thus far.

Shortly before the event, KJP said during a press conference that Joe would be wearing a mask anyway while indoors or near other people unless he was speaking, eating, or drinking. And he did show up to Taylor’s ceremony wearing a mask. But he took it off while giving some opening remarks and left it off even when placing the medal around the 81-year-old hero’s neck, leaning only inches away from his face. (NY Post)

President Biden remained maskless Tuesday in front of an 81-year-old vet while awarding him the Medal of Honor — flouting COVID-19 rules that the White House had just said Biden would follow.

Biden, 80 — whose wife Jill tested positive for the deadly virus Monday — removed his black KN-95-style mask during a prayer at the ceremony for retired Army Capt. Larry Taylor in the White House East Room, ahead of the president’s remarks from a lectern recounting the elderly honoree’s heroism in the Vietnam War…

After giving his speech, Biden failed to put the mask back on as he approached Taylor and stood roughly 6 inches from him for about four minutes as the citation for Taylor’s award was read aloud.

It should go without saying that both of these men are considered to be at elevated risk from COVID since they are both in their 80s. It would be a cruel bit of irony indeed for Captain Taylor to wait all of this time to receive the recognition he richly deserved, only to catch the ‘Rona from his Commander-in-Chief.

So was this an example of Joe Biden simply flaunting the rules that his own White House has established? Or did he just lose the plot (again) and forget about the masking guidelines in the middle of the ceremony? Personally, I’m leaning toward the latter explanation because of what happened next. Once the reading of Captain Taylor’s exploits was complete and the medal had been presented, it was time for the recitation of the prayer. But Biden simply wandered away and walked out of Taylor’s ceremony before it was complete.

Military veterans slammed Biden afterward, arguing that the commander-in-chief showed a startling lack of respect.

“Pardon my French…But what a f—ing idiot. The continuous lack of respect Biden has for anyone is appalling. Hawaii, Service members, active shooter victims, the list goes on,” former Navy SEAL and podcast host Shawn Ryan tweeted after the president’s hasty exit.

“At least he didn’t check his watch this time,” Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), an Army veteran, snarked on X, formerly known as Twitter.

While I agree that it was a serious lack of respect at a hugely important moment in that veteran’s long life, I’m still wrestling with the same question. Was this an intentional lack of respect? Or had Biden simply mentally checked out yet again? The ceremony was taking place at roughly 3:30 in the afternoon, so it might not have been a full-blown episode of “sundowning.” But it was later in the day and Joe tends to do worse as the day wears on.

I’m also curious how Biden managed to walk out of the event entirely without someone taking his arm and guiding him back to stick around for the prayer. Don’t they pretty much always have someone on hand to guide him around these days? This was either a serious oversight by his staff or someone was setting him up for another round of public humiliation and criticism. Then again, Dr. Jill is currently in Delaware fighting off the ‘Rona and she’s typically the one making most of the decisions behind the scenes, or so I assume. Perhaps her absence has just left Joe stranded at sea without a rudder. We may never know.