(Washington) A Democratic senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, judged Monday that Americans wanted to be “sure” that Joe Biden was “honest about his condition”, in an interview broadcast Monday by a local television channel.
Published yesterday at 8:59 p.m.
“People want to make sure that this campaign is winnable, that the president and his team are honest with us about his condition, that (Thursday’s debate with Republican Donald Trump) was truly an anomaly,” he told WPRI-TV.
This elected official from the state of Rhode Island (northeast), representing the left wing of the Democratic Party, says he is “fairly horrified” by the confrontation on CNN, during which the American president appeared very confused, and at times completely lost.
The next day, the 81-year-old Democrat, who had regained some energy, sought to reassure at a campaign rally in North Carolina (southeast): “I would not run again if I did not believe, with all my heart and soul, that I can do this job.”
For months, the White House has been brushing aside, sometimes with a certain irritation, any questions about the physical and mental faculties of the American president, whose physical and verbal ease has declined.
While the party’s heavyweights have publicly stated their support for him so far, since last Thursday’s debate, nervousness has been growing among supporters and donors, some of whom accuse the president’s inner circle of a lack of transparency about his abilities.
Others are asking Joe Biden to respond concretely to concerns, by increasing the number of press conferences or direct exchanges with journalists or supporters.
On Monday, a reporter asked the American president whether he would withdraw from the race, at the end of a short speech he had just given at the White House about a Supreme Court decision. Joe Biden turned on his heel and left the room without answering.
