President Biden had no clue whether or not he signed a critical executive order during a conversation last year with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who admitted he left the meeting fearing the nation is in “serious trouble.”
An addled Biden insisted to the Louisiana lawmaker that he never issued the order to freeze new liquid natural gas export permits — even though he signed off on it less than a month earlier.
Johnson told the Free Press’ Bari Weiss he didn’t believe Biden was lying, but was left to believe the then-81-year-old leader “genuinely didn’t know what he had signed.”
The troubling encounter happened in the Oval Office in early 2024, when the two met to discuss the latest aid package for Ukraine.
Afterwards, Johnson asked Biden why he had inked an executive order pausing new permits for American liquid natural gas export to European allies — a crucial issue for his constituents in the Bayou State, which in 2023, handled 61% of the nation’s LNG exports, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
“Why would you do that? Cause you understand we just talked about Ukraine, you understand you are fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine, because they gotta get their gas from him,” Johnson said he told Biden.
Biden was stunned, Johnson said.
“I didn’t do that,” the president said, according to Johnson.
“Sir, you paused it, I know. I have the export terminals in my state. I talked to those people in my state, I’ve talked to those people this morning, this is doing massive damage to our economy, national security,” Johnson said he told the commander-in-chief.
Biden continued to deny that he froze the exports — and then remembered he signed the executive order, which he said was simply to study the effects of the fuel.
-“I walked out of that meeting with fear and loathing because I thought, ‘We are in serious trouble—who is running the country?’” Johnson said.
“Like, I don’t know who put the paper in front of him, but he didn’t know,” he said.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported on Biden’s meeting with Johnson in late February, citing anonymous sources at the time.
A bombshell December report revealed White House aides had been covering up the 82-year-old president’s mental decline since the very beginning of his term.
In January 2021, staffers had already put into place plans to his in-person interactions. They also rearranged his daily schedules whenever Biden seemed tired or had made gaffes in public.
Biden himself admitted in a USA Today interview he wasn’t sure if he would’ve had the “vigor” for another term had he won re-election, although he didn’t clarify what this meant about his current mental capacities.
The lame duck president dropped out of the 2024 race following a disastrous debate performance against now-President-elect Donald Trump, where he gave garbled answers to questions, repeatedly froze, and even lost his train of thought.
He dropped soon after and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who was trounced by Trump in November’s presidential race.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
