Ep 48 audio

The podcast discusses the recent emergence of concerns about Joe Biden's competency as the incumbent president. An independent council's report raised questions about Biden's mental acuity, leading to debates about his age and fitness for presidency. The report also mentioned Biden's poor memory and hazy recollections. Democrats are frustrated by this narrative, as they want to focus on Biden's accomplishments and the improving economy. However, polls show increasing numbers of Americans view Biden's age as a problem. The Biden campaign will face a challenge in proving his ability to carry out the role of the presidency. welcome to the bill kelly podcast critical discussions in critical times here's your host bill kelly they're going to have a lot of us today this is the bill kelly podcast critical discussions in critical times i'm your host bill kelly good to have you with us today uh... with the presidential election are getting into high gear well at least some people would suggest one of the side seems to be getting into high gear uh... it seems to be one of the themes that seems to be emerging over the last week especially is the competency of the incumbent joe biden is under the microscope and i was about a new story there's always been some concerns about uh... the president and and his uh... his memory of things of this nature uh... but what i think fuel that fire just a little while ago as a report that came up for an independent council uh... there's really wait raise some questions uh... some suggest you know what not legitimate questions about uh... the president by his competency joining us to talk about that and the implications are please do welcome back to the show reggie chikini was washington correspondent for global news in the u.s. capital reggie great to have you with us today thanks so much for this thank you bill uh... as we mentioned that we've heard stories about this innuendo before the competency is one of the things that uh... the trump is always trying to nail his opponents on his debt with nikki hailey certainly do with joe biden uh... but this one kind of came out of the blue this uh... of course is a special counsel robert her who was investigating biden's uh... involvement with uh... documents are sensitive documents and things of this nature uh... and uh... by the way he said no charges should be laid in that but that's i guess the good news but that was buried uh... by some of the uh... hit mister hers assessments of what biden did anybody see this coming well i mean look it's there's a couple of things to to try and unpack with that number one you're right on on the new charges thing it was kind of the lesser talked about up point in the report although it begs the question you know that there's long-standing d o j policy that you can't charge a sitting president so is it totally unexpected that joe biden wasn't going to face any charges here not the most especially when you have the former president trying to claim the president should have all kinds of immunity against prosecution so i mean a whole lot to unpack when it comes to that uh... when it comes to that the comments that were made uh... deep within this report about the kind of mental acuity of the president i mean you don't look some some republicans some democrats some presidential candidates have really tried to address joe biden's age uh... as as a problem here to see it inside a written report i mean the the the president's uh... rather joe biden's all uh... campaign team the vice president other democrats have come out to say that these were gratuitous comments but i mean look the department of justice uh... and and with that the attorney general appointed this republican prosecutor this trump appointee to be in charge of this special counsel to go after this to do this report is it surprising to see a republican go after a sitting president and their their their kind of cognitive skills maybe not but i guess there's their secondary questions here is that did joe biden do this to himself by appointing merrick garland who has done everything that he can to make the d o j seem like it's not attached to the string to the white house on and by doing that he's appointing people who he believes they're going to give a fair and and and just report but ultimately they're in just don't really exist in in the world politics anymore so i mean it what what the word expected possibly uh... they've been pushed back on very hard well especially when some of the words that uh... that uh... that we used in this report uh... things like uh... memories hazy fuzzy faulty poor memory uh... during the interviews and investigations uh... opening a picture of mister marguerite maybe some people wouldn't get that reference but you know this old kindly old gentleman always very likable but he's just he's just not there as much as he probably should be uh... and i i thought some of the comments i'm sure you reported on those two i know you guys over the last couple of days uh... that uh... the best of her is is uh... a legal representative he's not a psychiatrist he's he's not qualified to make those sorts of judgments but there they were but you've raised a very valid point i wanted to ask you about this let me just kind of dovetail into this mary garland saw this report before became public uh... would he not have said wait a second that's that's above and beyond that shouldn't be there he again as i i i guess you say trying to look like he's he's trying to be fair to everybody he let it go knowing full well i would assume that that they were going to be consequences i mean it's a part of that is unsurprising i mean look at what happened when robert uh... when robert muller's special counsel report came out uh... about donald trump bill barr i had ultimate say in wheeling and dealing as to what was was going to ultimately be released i mean bill barr took a completely different route than than uh... mary garland did but you know for this report to come out garland essentially on the assumption here didn't want to make it look like he was getting involved in a process that could be seen as him kind of playing the role of the president's attorney and ultimately what we found here were the words you know to see something like like uh... well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory written in this report i mean it's worth pointing out that the reason some of those words were put in there are what is buried at the very end of this report in that the special counsel said we don't believe that there would be enough evidence here to mount a successful prosecution but also if he presented joe biden to a jury that there may be some sympathies there because the jury may perceive him as an elderly well-meaning man with a poor memory i mean it's not uh... if that's not really a luxurious endorsement of of a commander-in-chief to see this in writing and you're right you know these are these are qualities that almost seem partisan from this prosecutor who is who is undertaking this report but ultimately this now brings to the front burner a matter that democrats and the biden campaign had really been working for the last four years to make not a problem in that joe biden is fit and sound and able not only to continue this term but also to run for another term and as they're trying to to kind of gloat about the things that biden has done over the last few years including bringing the economy back from kind of the brink of collapse here they now have to deal with the fact that his age is still a problem and polls are showing more and more americans see his age as a problem so the words in the report are one thing but the fact that they resonate with americans is a completely different thing it's got to be frustrating though i know you talk to folks on the hill on a regular basis on both sides of the political fence here uh and as you say as we're drawing closer to the election in november this is not the narrative that democrats want they don't want to be talking about biden's mental acuities here they want to be talking about the way the economy is improved and and and there's a lot to be i guess you know full-chested and bragging very gorgeous about uh in what has happened here and i know sarah perquino wrote about it in usa today essentially saying is somebody going to tell biden that there's an election campaign on because he's not running he's not acting like he's running he's not running on his record he's playing defense and what's that old phrase that i think you mentioned to us a couple of uh sessions ago uh if you're explaining you're losing and and and right now the biden administration is explaining and that's not what they want to be doing at this stage is it no it's not uh and and the question is how are the words that were in that report versus the the kind of percentage of americans out there that don't think that donald that that joe biden is fit enough to carry out and continue on is the role as presidency how is that going to play out here over uh the next several months especially once we get beyond primary season it just becomes what is anticipated to be a biden trump rematch once we get through uh the nominating process look i talked to a democratic strategist last week who said that this is going to be the test for the biden campaign this is not 2020 donald trump who was out on the campaign trail in the midst of a pandemic uh you know kind of set the tone for for what 2024 might look like but joe biden is not going to be able to do this from his basement he's not going to be able to do this with these very small focus groups um if he's trying to kind of put forth this kind of uh a public feeling that he is up for the job this campaign at least in the eyes of democratic strategists and some democrats on the hill needs to be filled with um you know a joe biden who's able to take on um you know big public forums uh and and have big speeches without kind of trailing off or getting lost in his thoughts or forgetting things i mean look all of this kind of started once again after the report was released when joe biden came out to give that speech pushing back on the information within the report and then ad hoc took a couple of questions on foreign policy when it had to do with israel and immediately made a mistake by confusing the egyptian president with the mexican president and it reignited exactly everything that he was trying to walk back and there are growing concerns amongst the democratic party that this is going to be a problem on the campaign trail um if the president isn't able to get up there and carry out a speech without making a flop look donald trump makes flubs we've seen that in the past but they're not being focused on just the biden ones are because he's the incumbent well and they seem to be driving the narrative here which i guess is very frustrating for the democrats uh to the point uh even you know we just finished super bowl weekend of course traditionally the president usually has a sit down with the network of whoever's broadcasting at this particular time it was cbs uh he's passed on that the last couple of years republicans jumped all over that and said well you know it's because they're afraid to put him in front of a camera uh trump did it uh in the past uh much to his chagrin is the now famous jonathan swan interview that he did uh just before the last election which i think sank trump probably i don't know if it was the deciding factor but certainly exposed from for for what he was uh when can they get the democrats said is when they can can they get biden out there and and being joe biden being that aggressive guy that's a tough guy the you know the the pennsylvania blue collar guy that's going to stand up there and say i'm not taking any bs for you guys i don't know it's a good question look there are some democrats uh who said that they were they were happy that the white house opted to not allow for the president to do a big massive interview uh in and around the superbowl uh fearful of what could be said particularly if it was a live interview or if it was not how it may be edited but there are other democrats that say that joe biden need to get out there he needs to show that he can do it and i mean look last week when he came out and gave that very last minute called news conference at the white house again about the special counsel report um there was an angry president standing there pushing back at the media uh when he didn't like the questions that were being asked at him and you know his demeanor came off as a as a little questionable but at the end of the day it showed that he he can have what it takes um to be able to stand up and answer questions at the same time though he does this so infrequently he does not hold big press conferences he's never come to the press room uh at the white house for in the briefing room so the interactions between the press and and the president aren't they don't happen very often so there isn't this opportunity for the president to be able to kind of answer questions whenever people have them without having a list of who's going to be taking the questions here so i mean some people wanted him to be able to answer questions others did not want him to be in a position of possibly finding himself like donald trump was where he's caught up uh and you know in in things that may or may not be true and it becomes a a bit of a memeable thing or a gifable thing on social media but you know time is of the essence here especially for this incumbent president um and and the white house and the campaign need to be very careful about how they're moving forward with what they're doing with with president biden in a public light because it can easily become fuel for republicans uh that was the narrative the first part of the weekend and of course as you've been telling us for years now uh you know you never take time off when you're covering washington because stuff can happen anytime uh then came a trump speech over the weekend uh where he essentially said that that if you're not up to date with your payments to nato uh he says i would encourage putin to invade that country i would say go ahead and do whatever you want uh everybody was shocked the nato heads are shocked a number of governments i'm i'm surprised this is not front page news on the washington post or the new york times it was reported but this is this is the sort of thing that basically feeds right into the putin narrative uh whose raison d'etre for the last number of years has been to destroy nato and it looks like if trump wins this election in november he's going to be the biggest ally and maybe the one who's going to orchestrate that that breakup i mean look the words the the phrasing that was used by the former president was was was was was ridiculous i mean did you kind of stir the pot right now and seem like you're siding with um a dictator i mean there are some republicans questioning what what the former president said democrats are pushing back uh you know vehemently here european allies to the united states are questioning whether or not they need to be in a position of having a secondary plan to move forward here if donald trump wins and ultimately decides that he's going to withdraw the united states from nato and what that's going to mean for um for the kind of defense alliance at least within continental europe and how they may be able to be able to push back on uh on vladimir putin and any kind of russian uh threat um you know i think this is going to spark that conversation at least within republican circles that they'll try to trickle down um you know and kind of skew the facts to the electorate here that oh look this is all about money but ultimately you know the former president's talking about this two percent uh gdp defense spending that you know is is kind of um not quite a base or a ceiling but just a number that's not kind of set within the treaty here but ultimately look the president's trying to say we're going to walk out or the former president we're going to walk away from nato and and what is it doing i mean it's kind of feeding into that base of of the electorate on the republican side that may be on side with what talker carlson did and sat down and had this kind of one-on-one with vladimir putin and and you know questions where the republican party is ultimately moving here especially when you have the house pushing back on funding for ukraine i think donald trump is playing to a section of the united states and possibly a foreign audience but ultimately you know is that going to be enough to get him elected are those words going to come back to haunt him it's possible but again that's the kind of stuff that then provides fuel for democrats and and i mean your point's well taken i mean you know as people analyze trump's words uh that says one thing i don't believe for a second that there's actually a world leader that asked him that question uh and and it just seems okay but he's done that in the past you know people say and he goes into what the point is he wanted to make you know this guy said first of all i don't think any world leader would ever call him sir uh but quite aside from that the message of what he wants to do is quite believable because that's essentially what he tried to do today when he was the president not not necessarily break it up but basically caused dissension within the ranks there uh with france the uk and with others and certainly canada uh and as a matter of fact on this side of the border uh we should be very concerned about those words because we're one of those countries that he's targeted in the past and so we're not doing our share i mean for sure look there's a number number of ways that canada could find itself you know concerned by what donald trump has said either when it comes to how donald trump's treated canada or if donald trump were to say look i'm giving a free pass to vladimir putin to pay uh to invade anybody who happens to not be uh paying you know the the two percent canada obviously not in that top percentage of countries that are making that two percent contribution canada also has uh concerns when it comes to uh northern sovereignty arctic sovereignty uh when it comes to uh russia as well here so i mean look there could be some rattled nerves here to what donald trump is saying but ultimately look this is a populist candidate pushing a populist message here just trying to make it seem like he is going to bring america into this new future um that likely is never going to happen because he struggled to do anything with 2016 to 2020 and ultimately lost the election for a variety of different reasons here so i mean you know trump's bluster is simply going to work to rally up his base now i think there could be a question here if you heard joe biden make a comment that was allowing russia or vladimir putin to kind of carte blanche do what they want if if they you know somebody else doesn't think that that money is on the table there would be cognitive questions about joe biden's ability to move forward are those same questions being put towards donald trump they're not look there's polling out there that suggests 86 of americans think biden is too old trump just three years younger that number is only 62 but those comments are not raising the same kind of questions over over mental acuity and i think there is a bit of a double standard here when it comes to how the electorate looks at these two candidates well especially when you look at some of the characterizations and you might expect okay fox news well you know whose side they're on and uh but i think the frustration i'm hearing from a lot of democrats these days is that uh the so-called mainstream media uh you know the major networks of three major networks uh plus cnn and of course i mentioned the times and washington post uh they don't seem to be getting the message here as a matter of fact they seem to be pulling a merit garland here and trying so much and so hard to to try to look like they're being even-minded that they're basically going after biden and giving trump a pass uh this is deja vu over again isn't that what happened the year trump got elected i mean it was hillary clinton yeah i mean i mean look networks at the at this moment are doing what they can to ensure that they have ratings because we've seen slumps we've seen cuts across uh the media landscape in the united states and ultimately whatever they're trying to play to they're assuming that it's going to draw viewers in um you know but at issue here is if you're simply trying to draw viewers in by taking one message or another ultimately you may be doing a disservice particularly to facts and particularly uh to journalism here and you're right look fox news is not going to change its views it may change its views on on the candidate but ultimately whoever the candidate ends up being or the nominee ends up being fox news is going to end up being behind that kind of candidate um for the other networks i mean look they're doing what they can here um and and you know this this is a this is a moment in this election race where whatever networks are able to put out there i mean the information is is is important but um it needs to be based on on realities here but at the same time you know networks are are doing what they can to stand up to donald trump while at the same time doing what they can to stand up um to to president biden because there are questions that need to be asked and the white house and the campaign are obviously going to deflect on what some of the realities are uh but ultimately you know networks can only do what they can do to get viewers in uh we're a little tight on time but this was one of the things i wanted to talk to you about then so much other stuff has hit the fan over the last 48 hours it's so reggie a couple of court decisions early about a week ago now early this past week uh about trump first of all he is not immune to prosecution i don't think that surprised too many people uh but the supreme court is jumping in on this right now about the the colorado and the main situation uh there's some concern now about timing and that's always been a concern because we know that the the trump legal team has always said you know delay delay delay uh but now that they seem to get the green light now for the major trial that's going on here right now about the the immunity that which was the basis for the you know am i immune uh that could be going on right in the middle of the of the summer season which is uh also convention season uh what's what's the read out there what do you see happening i mean look this is important number one on the immunity thing by monday night we'll understand whether or not trump is going to appeal the dc circuit's decision to the supreme court he's quickly running out of time but if he doesn't do that on monday uh the dc ruling is going to stand and trump is going to find himself not immune from any prosecution um you know by tuesday we will have an answer on that when it comes to the supreme court when it comes to the colorado battle i think we need to look at the fact that the supreme court fast-tracked this colorado ballot issue um on a timeline that's not often seen by this kind of glacial moving judicial branch um and the fact that they heard arguments within just a couple of weeks and were expected to get uh uh some kind of answer or decision in the next couple of weeks before the march primary um you know i think that this could be one legal matter that donald trump has cleared from by the time we head into um the nominating process i mean look the justices even the liberal leaning justices all seem to push back on colorado's claim here that one state should be able to determine who uh can run and who can't run on a ballot and the fact that you have liberal leaning justices asking those questions almost makes it feel like this is a done deal and donald trump eventually essentially um could find himself on the winning side here as we head towards uh the middle part and eventually the general election that he will likely be the name on that ballot i think there are bigger questions here now as to what the immunity case is going to do is trump going to find himself standing before judge chutkin in washington dc on the january 6th and election subversion charges that's a real possibility also have to watch the documents trial i mean there's a big push between uh special counsel smith and judge cannon in florida uh over the release of names and the delay of that trial that is one to watch over the coming days if not maybe the coming weeks here to see if jack smith is ultimately able to get judge cannon removed from the case that is something that almost appears to be coming towards a boil here so i mean trump may be clear in one but there are two other trials uh cases that could pose serious problems as we move in the weeks down the line yeah right this stuff it's amazing the twists and turns that are ongoing and as always we'll be watching for your reporting on this over the next couple of days very very critical times here reggie as always thank you so much for joining us today really do appreciate it thank you reggie chiquita uh washington correspondent for global news uh as we continue and that's it for this edition of the bill kelly podcast you can catch us of course wherever you get your favorite podcasts until next time take care we'll talk again soon bill kelly podcast brought to you by wizens law personal injury lawyers listen you didn't choose to get injured but you can choose the right lawyer wizens law 905-522-1102 or wizenslaw.com