After weeks of facing pressure from leaders of his own party to drop out of the 2024 presidential race after his disastrous debate performance, Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he is suspending his reelection campaign.
The announcement did not come via a primetime address or a pre-recorded statement. It didn’t even come with a photograph. Instead, Biden alerted the nation he would be stepping aside via a typed letter posted to X that did not feature the official White House letterhead or even his normal signature.
All of this has led to more questions than answers. On Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by Charles C.W. Cooke and Jim Geraghty of National Review to discuss why the president has not been seen or heard from since his COVID diagnosis last Wednesday and whether he is well enough to remain in office for the rest of his term.
Hiding Biden
As Megyn laid out, there has been a series of unusual circumstances that has led to this particular moment in which Biden is no longer the Democrat nominee but is still president of the United States and is nowhere to be seen.
“I have a lot of questions about this, and I do think we deserve answers,” she said. “Why have we not seen Joe Biden? Why isn’t the letter on White House stationery? Why does it have an ‘s’ at the end of the signature? Why is there an underline when there never is? What is happening?”
Geraghty used the acronym ‘PINO’ (i.e. president in name only) to describe Biden in a recent column, and the moniker only seems to be more fitting with each passing day. “This started out as ‘wow, this is really weird,'” he said. “But by the time we got up this morning, that there was no on-camera statement, there was no taped statement, there was no radio address does not make any sense.”
Last Wednesday, the White House said that the 81 year old tested positive for COVID and would be self-isolating at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home until further notice. That same night, video showed Biden appearing to need physical assistance from the Secret Service to get into his waiting motorcade. “The footage was alarming,” Megyn noted. “Since then, we haven’t seen him.”
There have been two updates – official and unofficial – on Biden’s health in the last 24 hours, but neither have done much to quell the curiosity. “The president’s doctor, 45 minutes before the announcement, puts out a statement saying the president is recovering great, blood oxygen level is what it should be, all his vitals look fine… [yet] you’re not allowed to see him at all,” Geraghty pointed out. “And then Kamala Harris comes out and says, ‘He’s recovering terrific.’ But you don’t see him. We didn’t even get a picture of him signing this document.”
‘Where Is He?’
In Megyn’s view, that secrecy is allowing this situation to appear “even more scandalous” than it may actually be. “This would be bad enough if he had announced he was stepping down from his second term bid and the presidency and we weren’t seeing him. People would have questions: Where is he? Why isn’t there at least a still [photograph]? All of that is traditional… when the president is issuing a large paper statement or… signing legislation,” she explained. “But he is the sitting commander in chief. He still does have the nuclear football. So, where is he and how long could they possibly keep him out of public sight?”
Cooke admitted that, even as someone who is averse to conspiracy theories, this situation is increasingly odd. “It is not beyond the reasonable thoughts of reasonable people to wonder whether the White House and the press might for 24 hours be trying to hide Biden’s condition… It would be good to know because this is about more than just the election,” he said. “He is still the president… [and] as citizens, we do have a right to know whether the president is able to be photographed or filmed saying he is dropping out.”
Ultimately, Geraghty said time is up. “We’ve always thought Biden was too old to serve a second term. The signs have been obvious,” he concluded. “But I think there is now kind of a really chilling and unnerving tone to all of this [and] we really should be seeing the president right now.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Cooke and Geraghty by tuning in to episode 844 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.