G7 Summit: Old Joe Steals the Show

Headline: “Sleepy Joe” too tired. Biden skips dinner with Mattarella

-”Do you mind if I don’t come to dinner?”

-”Er, the problem is I don’t know who to leave you with here.”

“Look, up in the sky!”

- “It’s a bird!”

-”It’s a plane!”

-”No, it’s a clue!”

You won’t see much of this in the mainstream media here at home, but President Biden’s behavior in Italy during the G7 Summit has drawn a lot of attention in Italy. The below article from today’s Il Giornale is translated by Fousesquawk. It has a video of Biden wandering off during an event.

https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica-internazionale/si-distrae-video-g7-e-quei-nuovi-dubbi-sulla-salute-biden-2334548.html

“He gets distracted…” The video at the G7 and those new doubts on the health of Biden

The latest alarm bell on the condition of the US president: Here is the curtain call at the summit of Borgo Egnazia

By Massimo Balsamo   14 June 2024 at 15:51

There is great worry among the Democrats of the Stars and Stripes and it could not be otherwise. The reference is obviously to the state of health of Joe Biden who reverted to an incredible series of gaffes and blunders a few months from the presidential election against Donald Trump. Yesterday, during the G7 summit at Borgo Egnazia in Puglia. he created a scene that was anything but edifying. The 81-year-old and the other leaders attended a ceremony of the flags of the 7 nations and that of the European Union, dropping from the sky with soldiers of Folgore from two planes. At a certain point during the parachutists’ jump, Biden became distracted and wandered away from the group.

The videos available don’t leave large margins of interpretation. Following the exhibition of the parachutists, Biden moved a few meters and began to direct his appreciation to the parachutists with the thumbs-up gesture. Realizing what was happening, Giorgia Meloni approached the US president and called him back by touching his shoulders. A moment of great embarrassment added to those recorded in the past weeks. And on social media, Trump supporters went wild also considering the absence of the Democrat at the gala dinner with President Sergio Mattarella and the other world leaders.

The sequence of what happened at Borgo Egnazia went viral, but in the States, it is hard to hide a certain worry. The testimony has multiplied regarding the alleged cognitive decline of Biden to the point that it could compromise his institutional functions, especially at such a delicate phase at the international level. Dozens of Republican and Democrat legislators and collaborators have spoken to the Wall Street Journal on the president’s public blunders, but also about his strange behavior in private meetings.  

Many have stressed the palpable slowness of the president or the increasingly marked tendency to follow the suggestions of assistants. “He is no longer the same person as before,” (is) the fear that winds its way around the White House. An extremely complex situation just less than 5 months from the elections……..