Which Joe Biden will show up for debate?
Dazed, mumbling, confused, words-trailing-off – or angry, shouting, words-running-together?
With the nation's – and perhaps much of the world's – attention fixated on Thursday night's presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, one question that is doubtlessly looming large in the minds of many people is: Which Joe Biden will show up for the CNN-hosted primetime debate?
For two jarringly different versions of the 81-year-old president are evident to just about everyone.
One version, by far the most common, is the dazed, wandering-off, disoriented, shaking-hands-with-the-air, stumbling, mumbling, speech-slurring Joe Biden, of which countless embarrassing videos populate the internet. Indeed, Biden's painfully obvious mental and physical decline since becoming president are familiar to virtually everyone who follows the news.
But then there is the other version of Joe Biden – the one seen and heard, to cite just one example, at his 2024 State of the Union speech – angry, shouting, speaking so fast and so emotionally that he sometimes runs his words together, making them difficult to understand.
This latter syndrome, and the dramatic contrast with the normal, everyday, stumbling, mumbling Biden, has caused some medical professionals, including well-known forensic psychiatrist and frequent trial expert witness Carole Lieberman, to suspect the president is on drugs – specifically amphetamines, or "uppers."
"If you look at how Joe Biden usually is – slow and stumbling – compared to how he was during the State of the Union – fiery and angry – these are signs that are typical for someone taking Adderall or any amphetamine," she explained, as WND has reported.
Biden "would not pass a baseline mental competency test," she says.
In fact, the same concerns have prompted former White House physician Ronny Jackson to call for Joe Biden do undergo a drug test before the CNN debate with Trump. Jackson specifically cited Biden's super-charged State of the Union address in concluding there is "surely no way to explain that other than he was on something."
But predictably, the White House has categorically rejected the suggestion, urged by many, that both Biden and Trump undergo drug testing before and after the debate.
So, which Biden will show up Thursday night? Will it be the normal dazed, confused, mumbling, words-trailing-off Biden – or the fiery, shouting, amphetamine-like "speedy speech" Biden?
Or, will Americans see something else? "At least 16 current and former aides," the New York Times reports, have spent the last week with Biden rehearsing his debate performance at Camp David. Is it possible they will have succeeded in getting Biden into a "sweet spot" between the two equally off-putting extremes, in hopes he will pass the test of party insiders regarding whether he should indeed be the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential candidate?
Indeed, many believe the presidential debate being held so unusually early – normally debates would be held much closer to November’s election – to enable Democratic Party power-brokers the opportunity, should Biden "crash and burn" during the debate, to bring in another presidential candidate at the party’s nominating convention, scheduled to be held starting Aug. 19 in Chicago.
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