White House covered up Joe Biden’s decline, BBC presenter claims

The White House covered up Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline, a BBC presenter has claimed.

Justin Webb, who presents BBC Radio 4′s Today programme and the Americast podcast, said there was “no question” that the Democrats had been untruthful about the state of the American President’s health.

Biden, 81, has become increasingly gaffe-prone and visibly frail in recent years, prompting doubts about his ability to serve as President for another term.

But the White House maintained that he was fit to serve and that concerns about his health were overblown.

Biden dropped out of the presidential election race on Sunday.

“What was going on behind the scenes was a cover-up, and there’s no question at all about it,” Webb told the Today programme on Monday morning.

He added: “They knew that he was in decline, and other people who monitored the White House knew that he was in decline, but all of them decided not to tell the American people.

“And the problem for Kamala Harris is, of course, she was there when all of this was going on, and already the Trump campaign are labelling her, trying to put her into the position of being one of the enablers of Joe Biden and one of the enablers of the myth that he was capable of carrying on.”

Trips and gaffes led to Biden’s downfall

Biden’s downfall was triggered by a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27, when he froze and lost his train of thought on national television.

The situation was worsened by more public gaffes at the Nato summit in Washington earlier this month when he confused Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s leader.