Reading tea leaves, but this seems plausible

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NEW: Joe Biden Says He'd Drop Out If Doctors Told Him to, Sets Up a 'Dignified' Exit (Updated)

By Bonchie | 2:15 PM on July 17, 2024

“After weeks of defiance over calls for him to drop out of the presidential race, Joe Biden just gave the first real hint that he might be willing to do so. 

“In several past interviews, Biden insisted that he was the nominee and that nothing but God could force him to withdraw. Yet, in a new interview with BET, the president directly stated that he would drop out if medical professionals advised him to.”

The 81-year-old president made the remark in a BET interview taped Tuesday when asked what it would take to prompt him to reconsider his candidacy.

“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” Biden said in an excerpt released Wednesday.

“Video of the exchange was not available as of this writing, but the released excerpt has set the internet on fire. Is Biden creating a path for a "dignified" exit? As I've opined before, he very likely has Parkinson's disease, and that's backed not just by reporting that a Parkinson's expert visited the White House ten times but also by the president's physical appearance. In other words, it's not like they'd have to make up an ailment.”*

And then there’s this:

Biden’s call with Dems was ‘even worse than the debate’ - as Schiff now joins chorus calling for him to leave

President Joe Biden held a call with moderate Democrats that was “even worse than the debate” just an hour before the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday, it has been revealed.

The report by Puck citing people on the Zoom call comes as House Democratic heavyweight and California Senate nominee Adam Schiff called on Biden to step aside on Wednesday.

Like in the debate, Biden is reported to have lost his train of thought during the Zoom call with moderate Democrats. One anonymous source told Puck that had the assassination attempt not taken place, as many as “50 people on that Zoom were ready to come out publicly against him.”

One person who took part in the conversation told the outlet, “The call was even worse than the debate. He was rambling – he’d start an answer then lose his train of thought, then would just say ‘whatever.’ I lost a ton of respect for him.”

A second person confirmed this version of events. A member of Congress told Puck that Biden “was rambling, dismissive of concerns, unable or unprepared to present a campaign strategy, and had a particularly troubling exchange with [Colorado Democratic Rep] Jason Crow, saying to him, ‘Tell me something you’ve never done with your Bronze Star like my son.’”

Biden’s son Beau Biden, the attorney general of Delaware between 2007 and 2015, died of brain cancer shortly after leaving office. The president believes that a possible reason behind the cancer diagnosis is the burn pits his son was exposed to during his time serving in Iraq.

The call came amid increasing pressure on Biden to step aside over concerns about his age and mental acuity after a disastrous debate. Biden appeared confused and frail during the CNN showdown with Trump and he lost his train of thought on several occasions.

But the assassination attempt against Trump and the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee has removed the spotlight from the president. However, Democratic concerns about his campaign have not gone away.

Fox News’ Jimmy Fiala, who predicted back in May, when Biden’s handlers scheduled a debate before the Democrat convention, that it was an audition, to see whether the old man could perform well enough to convince them that he’d make it through the election (spoiler alert: he didn’t), now points out that those same handlers have scheduled Kampallawalla Ding Dong for her own audition. Of the three debate dates they’ve offered J.D. Vance, all are before the Democratic convention. Faila says a pre-convention, pre-nomination debate between vide-presidential nominees has never occurred before, so, he predicts, it’s being done this time to see if they can dump Biden and slot her in without complete disaster. Watch for developments.

*UPDATE: Here’s the video