The GOP and the “liberal” mainstream press have been misleading the voters for months about President Joe Biden’s health. In a four day period in September, the cable news stations mentioned Biden’s age 193 times while Trump’s age was mentioned just 56 times. (MediaMatters.org on September 29, 2023.) After this one sided coverage, these same media outlets then polled the voters about Biden’s age and found (surprise!) that voters are more concerned about Biden’s age than Trump’s age. It’s garbage in and garbage out.

What is seldom mentioned by the mainstream press is that numerous prominent Republicans have said that Joe Biden is fit for duty. “Speaker Kevin McCarthy testified that Mr. Biden had been “very professional, very smart, very tough” during their talks. Yet people who deal with him regularly, including some of his adversaries, say he remains sharp and commanding in private meetings.” New York  Times on June 4, 2023.

After Biden concluded his debt ceiling deal with McCarthy in June, the extremist so-called House “Freedom” Caucus members complained that Biden “outsmarted” McCarthy in the negotiations. The House GOP’s most extreme members hate Biden and have zero incentive to tell the truth about Biden’s good state of health.

After the recent ouster of McCarthy as speaker, even more evidence emerged from prominent Republicans that Biden is still energetic and sharp. “On a particularly sensitive matter, McCarthy mocked Biden’s age and mental acuity in public, while privately telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations — a contradiction that left a deep impression on the White House.” The Politico on October 4, 2023.

On October 2, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) took to the floor of the House to denounce the deal that funded the government for forty five days Gaetz said: “It is going to be difficult for my Republican friends to keep calling President Biden feeble while he continues to take Speaker McCarthy’s lunch money in every negotiation.”

Meanwhile, the mainstream press has largely ignored and downplayed Trump’s declining mental condition and increasing tendency to threaten violence. Probably the only mainstream media piece that accurately described the respective health of Biden and Trump was in the New York Times on June 4, 2023. The pertinent excerpts are as follows:

“While in office, Mr. Trump generated concerns about his mental acuity and physical condition. He did not exercise, his diet leaned heavily on cheeseburgers and steak and he officially tipped the scales at 244 pounds, a weight formally deemed obese for his height.

After complaining that he was overscheduled with morning meetings, Mr. Trump stopped showing up at the Oval Office until 11 or 11:30 a.m. each day, staying in the residence to watch television, make phone calls or send out incendiary tweets. During an appearance at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he had trouble lifting a glass of water and seemed to have trouble making his way down a modest ramp.

Most striking was Mr. Trump’s cognitive performance. He was erratic and tended to ramble; experts have found that he had grown less articulate and that his vocabulary had shrunk since his younger days. Aides said privately that Mr. Trump had trouble processing information and distinguishing fact from fiction. His second chief of staff, John F. Kelly, bought a book analyzing Mr. Trump’s psychological health to understand him better, and several cabinet secretaries concerned that he might be mentally unfit discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him.”

Meanwhile, the Former Guy continues to deteriorate before our very eyes. In a recent bizarre rant on the campaign trail, Trump said he would prefer to die by electrocution rather than be eaten by a shark. In these remarks, Trump, slurred his words, saying he’d rather face “elecstrocution” than be eaten by a shark.

The four time indicted former president followed that up with a bizarre, stream of consciousness pitch to California voters on September 29, promising to fill the state’s canals with enough water to irrigate bathrooms and dampen forests to prevent wildfires. “All the currently dry canals will be brimming and used to irrigate everything including your own homes and bathrooms and everything — you’re going to be happy and I’m going to get it done fast,” Trump said. “They say that there’s so much water up north that I want to have the overflow areas go into your forests and dampen your forests because if you dampen your forests you’re not going to have these forest fires that are burning at levels that nobody’s ever seen before.”

And that’s not all. This part of a recurring pattern. These aren’t isolated statements. The highlights (or lowlights) of Trump’s deteriorating condition are as follows.

Trump forgot who is currently president, and claimed “the Obama administration” recorded the length of his “border wall.”

He even claimed **Jeb Bush** invaded Afghanistan and Iraq! Trump appeared confused when he said Jeb Bush was president during the Iraq War. “You know he was a mili — he got us into the, uh, he got us into the Middle East … Right?”

In September, Trump mixed up Biden and Obama, and claimed Biden might start World War TWO. Trump even said you need a government photo ID to buy a loaf of bread.

At the same time, Trump’s remarks have taken a dark turn and he has repeatedly threatened violence. Trump suggested that General Mark Milley should be executed. If anybody else had said that, they would be getting a visit from the FBI. The fact that this isn’t being treated as major front-page news is astonishing to me.

The twice impeached former president mockingly asked how Nancy Pelosi’s husband was doing, referring to the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi in 2022 during a home invasion by a perpetrator the police said was obsessed with Trump’s election conspiracy theories.

The former television reality star made menacing remarks about New York Attorney General Letitia James in a New York City courtroom. As he was walking into the courtroom, Trump said: “You ought to go after this attorney general.” This is a clear signal to his most unhinged supporters.

Trump promised extrajudicial killings at a recent speech in California. He said: “We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft. Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store,” he said, drawing loud applause. “Shot!” he added for emphasis. The crowd went wild.

The run away front runner for the GOP presidential nomination said Comcast, the owner of NBC and MSNBC, “should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason’” and promised to do so should he be re-elected president next year. Why does the press continue to cover up Trump’s poor health when he has promised to go after them? How can they be so stupid?

It’s pretty wild that, of the two leading presidential candidates, the guy found liable for rape and who is facing ninety one criminal indictments isn’t the one who is facing calls to step aside for someone else to run. The mainstream media has lost all sense of scale and proportion. The media fixation with Biden as opposed to this clearly impaired guy is journalistic malpractice.

Will they ever catch on? When will the press call on Trump to step down? Where is the scrutiny?

It’s up to Democrats to save democracy in 2024. We can’t count on the press, prosecutors or the courts. We have to do the hard work of turning back the fascist threat to our country by electing more Democrats. The Democratic Party is the only check and balance on Trump and the MAGA Republicans.