In a remarkable exchange on Chuck Todd’s podcast this week, both Todd and Politico’s Jonathan Martin admitted that high-level Democrats have been saying “for years”— years — that Joe Biden is in rough mental shape and not up to another term in office. They say Biden’s decline was an “open secret” and a “simmering conversation.”
And only now are these “reporters” reporting this to the public.
Here’s a transcript. The emphasis is my good faith interpretation…
Jonathan Martin: Chuck, I’m just skeptical [Biden’s] ever going [to drop out of the campaign], even if he has a terrible [NATO] press conference [Thursday night]. The politicians in the Democratic party have shown in the last few days that a lot of them simply don’t have the courage of their convictions. They simply aren’t going to stand up and say in public what they have been telling folks like us in private for years. This is not a new story!
Actually, it is a new story because none of my efforts on the Google Machine came up with a Jonathan Martin story years ago about Democrat Party officials worried about Biden’s mental decline.
So, this is like super new.
Chuck Todd: Jon, I’m not going to out the cabinet secretary, but I had a cabinet secretary two years ago— okay, two years ago, out of the blue ask me: ‘Do you really think he can—he can’t run again like this.’ And I said, ‘You have more interaction that I do’ and he said, ‘I don’t have a lot of interaction with him.’ This is a pretty senior cabinet secretary and this was two years ago. This is one of those classic open secrets—nonversation, right? It’s the story everybody knows and everybody was afraid to talk about.
Actually, not everyone knew about it because my same efforts on that same Google Machine failed to come up with a report from Chuck Todd informing the public about this extraordinarily important piece of news; and I was under the impression that part of Todd’s job description was, you know, to report important stuff like a cabinet secretary worried about the sitting president’s mental decline.
JM: Chuck we have actually had this conversation about the nonversation last year.
CT: I know we did.
JM: You used that word [“nonversation”].
CT: Yes, we’ve chronicled this. Look for those who want to say the media’s—look, the media’s as good as the sources that don’t lie to us are.
But, but, but you had sources telling you the truth about Biden’s mental decline and you didn’t tell us.
JM: Exactly!
CT: And I always say that there are certain things about out job. The job of a journalist—to me…your first job as a journalist is to observe. And sometimes the most important observations are what don’t happen versus what does happen.
JM: Absolutely. The dog that is not barking.
But, but, but you guys were the dogs not barking, not reporting, not doing the journalism. That’s was you guys—you know that, right?
CT: And that was the point. How many times have you said to me, ‘When are you having Biden on the show.’ I’d say, ‘You tell me. I haven’t had Biden on Meet the Press since June of 2020; and interview when he was in his basement.’ Hasn’t done a Sunday show since…They were not putting him out for years….
JM: He stayed in the proverbial basement well after 2020, For those of us who have talked about it, covered…the idea there was some grand media cover up is laughable, because it was a simmering conversation that was written about, we talked about it. But, yeah, you’re right. What stopped it from becoming more of a conversation was Democratic leaders, much like GOP leaders—
Wait? How did Democrat leaders stop it from becoming more of a conversation when you both could’ve easily led this conversation with the information you now admit to sitting on “for years?”
CT: You mean the elite? Are you talking about the elites, Jon. The elites got together and said we shouldn’t push Biden out.
JM: What was son interesting is that unlike with Trump…Democrat officeholders weren’t doing it because their voters had some great love for Joe Biden. They were doing it because frankly they didn’t want to be asked the next question…which would’ve invariably been, ‘So are you for the Vice President?’ They didn’t want to answer that question.
What’s fascinating is that neither man says the following: I couldn’t report this publicly before because these conversations were off the record, but my sources have now allowed me to go public.
In other words, they have sat on this bombshell information “for years.” According to their own words, they have known this “for years,” and not only hid it from the public, they said nothing as their colleagues attacked anyone who dared bring up the idea that Biden was enfeebled.
President of the United States Joe Biden and Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni during welcome ceremony of the NATO Summit in Washington DC, United States on July 10, 2024. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty)
Watch Todd here talk about how the “Right-Wing Noise Machine” amplifies Biden’s gaffes, and then go on to discuss Biden’s age issue in the same way a Democrat activist would—by offering advice on how to fix public perception. Imagine if he had told the story about the senior cabinet secretary. And why didn’t he? Why did he hide that alarming information until after it mattered? Where’s the journalism, Chuck?
Less than two years ago, Martin worked for CNN and the New York Times, two outlets that until two weeks ago dismissed every criticism of Biden’s feebleness as a right-wing talking point and “cheap fake.” Why didn’t he speak up? Why didn’t he tell the story? Why didn’t he do some journalism and say, No, no, no, Democrats have been worried about this FOR YEARS.
They all knew
All of them knew.
And they said nothing.
Why?
Because this isn’t about what’s best for the country or the American people. When you are talking about the corporate media, it all comes down to one thing: Doing what’s best for Democrats.
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Courtesy of CNN Presidential DebateWhen covering up Biden’s mental decline and the Democrat party’s concern about that decline helped Democrats, Jonathan Martin and Chuck Todd and all the rest who were aware of this “open secret” not only covered it up, they said nothing as people who told the truth were attacked by the White House and billion-dollar media outlets as liars, ageists, and cheapfakers.
Oh, but now that getting rid of Joe Biden is what’s best for the Democrat Party, now the truth can be told.
The media are so broken, corrupt, and bubbled that Todd and Martin aren’t even self-aware enough to grasp that they sound like a couple of mobsters on a wiretap bragging about their crimes.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
