I think we all knew this sort of revelation was coming but I sort of doubted we'd hear about it before November. But here comes the Wall Street Journal with the least surprising news of this election cycle: Joe Biden has lost a step. This is according to lawmakers who've been in the room with him for meetings like the one held January 17, 2024 to discuss Ukraine funding.

With Ukraine running out of munitions, the White House called together top lawmakers to discuss what it would take to get congressional funding, along with the scope of border-security changes demanded by Republicans. The president moved so slowly around the Cabinet Room to greet the nearly two dozen congressional leaders that it took about 10 minutes for the meeting to begin, some people who attended recalled. 

Biden started the meeting reading from notes to make broad points about the need to give money to Ukraine, which struck several participants as odd given that the lawmakers present already generally agreed that more funds were needed. Some attendees had trouble hearing him.

Biden deferred so frequently to other lawmakers that much of the conversation didn’t include him, some people who attended the meeting recalled. When questions came directly to him, he would turn to staffers, they said. 

“You couldn’t be there and not feel uncomfortable,” said one person who attended. “I’ll just say that.” 

Speaker Mike Johnson, one of the few critics who spoke on the record, also said he could see a difference.

Last year, when Biden was negotiating with House Republicans to lift the debt ceiling, his demeanor and command of the details seemed to shift from one day to the next, according to then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and two others familiar with the talks. On some days, he had loose and spontaneous exchanges with Republicans, and on others he mumbled and appeared to rely on notes.

“I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I’d go to his house,” McCarthy said in an interview. “He’s not the same person.”

The White House is denying everything and claiming this is a partisan trick. In fact, the article reads like it was co-written by White House PR flaks. White House spokesman Andrew Bates is quoted something like 8 separate times in an attempt to dampen every single claim made about Biden's age and mental acuity. The White House also clearly tried to take control of this story by prompting its allies to be positive in what the said to the paper.

The White House kept close tabs on some of The Wall Street Journal’s interviews with Democratic lawmakers. After the offices of several Democrats shared with the White House either a recording of an interview or details about what was asked, some of those lawmakers spoke to the Journal a second time and once again emphasized Biden’s strengths. 

“They just, you know, said that I should give you a call back,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, referring to the White House.

I don't blame them for being worried about this. It's probably the single biggest hurdle Biden faces this year. But the heavy handedness also makes them look nervous and a bit desperate.

The Journal points out several times when Republicans made positive comments after negotiations with the White House, i.e. the White House has a smart team in there. But of course no one in the midst of a negotiation is going to come out swinging with something like "Biden seems lost." That's a way to guarantee you get nothing in the negotiation. So of course Republicans have said bland or generally positive things after some of these meetings. They had not choice.

The narrative we've been hearing for a while now is that Biden may occasionally stumble in public but behind the scenes he's a master of the details and sharp as he ever was. Prompted by the White House that's what a lot of Democrats quoted in the story are still saying. But Republican Sen. James E. Risch, says he didn't see Biden-the-dynamo on display in meetings he had with him. "What you see on TV is what you get," he said.

Speaking of TV, it's not an accident that Biden has given fewer interviews and press conferences than any President since Reagan:

In the 100 years since Calvin Coolidge took office, only Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan held as few news conferences each year as the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Traveling in Ireland last week, President Biden abandoned the decades-old tradition of holding a news conference while abroad. On Thursday, President Gustavo Petro of Colombia met with Mr. Biden, but the two did not hold a news conference together, another practice of his predecessors that Mr. Biden has frequently chosen to skip. After the meeting, Mr. Petro took questions from reporters — alone — at microphones in front of the West Wing.

And despite his press secretary pledging that Mr. Biden would “bring transparency and truth back to the government,” in his first two years, the president granted the fewest interviews since Mr. Reagan’s presidency: only 54. (Donald J. Trump gave 202 during the first two years of his presidency; Barack Obama gave 275.)

His number of meetings with small groups of lawmakers has also declined steadily each year. Looking at the trend lines it's clear his staff want him out there as little as possible. There has to be a reason for that.

I think that's probably the main takeaway here. The White House has been trying to sell us on the idea that Biden is better off camera than on, but this story suggests that's not true. The overall picture is of an older man who has moments of lucidity during which he is like his old self and other moments where he seems to trail off, mumble, talk quietly and forget the details. In other words, the same stuff we've all seen him do when he speaks in public.