There is a war breaking out on the left in this country. On one side, the Biden family and some Democratic politicians like AOC are fully on board with Joe Biden remaining the nominee, and many lawmakers are speaking out publicly in support of the current president. But then there s what s happening behind the scenes and what might happen next.
00:20:20.820And the other thing I think of is if, you know, if we say that there are 45 people who are credited to be in the Brady room, which is the White House briefing room, and let's say that Megyn Kelly is one of them.
00:20:35.880And let's say that Megyn Kelly is thinking about doing a story about Biden's age, and let's say that one of the White House flacks says, Megyn, you can't do that, or we're going to do what?
00:20:48.620But that's the part I don't get is that there has to be one or two reporters in the room who's when they're contacted by the White House or, you know, hectored by the White House to say you can't say that about Joe Biden's age or whatever.
00:21:06.220It would seem to me that that would sort of spur them to say it.
00:21:10.500So that's another piece I don't understand about James Rosen asked a question directly of Joe Biden about his age in the opinion poll showing that the American public thinks he's too old and he was banned from the White House briefing room for eight months.
00:21:24.020Peter Baker of the New York Times, who's now reporting about the age issue post-debate, had a post talking about how the White House had been threatening, that they'd been calling, he had a mention about how the White House would call your editor if you asked questions about, you know, the, about his age issues.
00:21:44.860And Matt Taibbi, very respected journalist, now independent, wrote a piece saying, complaining that they would contact your editor about an article you're writing is the equivalent of saying, where are my balls?
00:21:59.540Just saying, this is a badge of honor for most actual reporters to get, you know, the source calling your boss and saying, please don't have her write that.
00:22:10.840And one final point on the story, Senk Uyghur, a liberal commentator, said he had interviewed Sam Donaldson about all of his years covering the White House, storied ABC reporter.
00:22:22.500And he said his editor at ABC, every time that the editor got a call from the White House complaining about Sam Donaldson, would give Sam Donaldson a raise for doing his job.
00:22:35.300The other, I mean, one last thing about 2021, at the time that I wrote the piece, the data was that 60%, I believe it was, 60% of the electorate believed that Biden was too old to serve in a second term.
00:22:53.820And that number has gone up steadily to the point that AP and NORC, and this was last fall, their poll, and NORC is arguably the best polling organization in the world.
00:23:10.720Their polls showed that 80%, 78%, of registered voters believed that Biden was not capable of, quote, serving effectively as president in a second term.
00:23:26.920So it would seem to me that if 80% of the people in the United States of America think he's too old to seek re-election, that the press corps would be all over that story.
00:23:44.920And one of the great mysteries of, I mean, news items comes out to six days a week.
00:23:51.280I have political items that comes out three days a week or four days a week, depending.
00:23:55.700You know, I read this stuff all day long.
00:23:58.420And when I read the NORC poll with the AP in the last fall, I thought, well, that's the dam breaking, right?
00:24:14.360And the only follow-up, actually, was other polling organizations, sort of amazed that that was a number that AP and NORC had pulled, started to ask the same questions.
00:24:25.380And, of course, it confirmed everything that the AP and NORC found, although in some cases it was 65%.
00:24:55.060So the latest Times-Siena poll shows 75%, I think it was 74%, continue to have those concerns, you know, greater in the Times poll at least than ever, post-debate.
00:25:04.960But I wanted to pick up on something you said, because earlier, the Times now is all in on getting Biden out.
00:25:10.860They're not the only ones, almost all the press.
00:25:12.580But you point out something important about the black vote within the Democratic Party and looking at leaders like Clyburn, like Hakeem Jeffries, and they're going to be forced to make a decision here, right?
00:25:25.020It's sort of interesting to watch the Democratic Party being split between their core base of black voters and white elites.
00:25:32.920That really is their base now, the people who read the Times, the people who live, you know, where I lived for 17 years on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
00:25:40.900They're going to have to make a choice if things remain as they are with those two groups split over what to do.
00:25:49.660And what does history tell you will be the winning factor?
00:25:53.040Well, I think, I mean, it really is the outcome on, if we can call it this, I'm not sure we can call it this, but if you say on the black side of the Democratic Party, the leadership, Clyburn, Jeffries, et al.,
00:26:12.160if they come to the conclusion that Biden cannot, will, can't, the Biden campaign can't continue and the Democratic Party needs to nominate someone else,
00:26:24.860their leadership will have, I think, a significant impact on what we might call the black electorate.
00:26:32.700And if the black, on the other hand, if the black electorate says, no, you can't do that, I don't know that Clyburn and Jeffries have enough juice to say, we don't care what you think, we're just going to go ahead.
00:26:46.660So that's the, to me, that's the most interesting thing to watch in, you know, in terms of what the various Democratic constituencies do.
00:26:56.280The black constituency is by far the most important, in my view.
00:26:59.900The elite constituency, which big money, college educated, you know, New York Times readers, et cetera, they, you know, they've decided.
00:27:11.980And Biden has turned that decision into a kind of faux populist campaign against elites, which to you and I seems preposterous, but that's the tactic.
00:27:25.120Again, what's missing from all this is, is he actually capable of serving as president now?
00:27:33.080It's not so much whether he can seek re-election, it's about whether he's capable of serving as president now.
00:27:40.340And until we get a medical examination that says yay or nay, which, of course, the White House is avoiding at all costs, it seems to me that's an open question.
00:27:52.500And since they are avoiding it at all costs, I think we have to assume that the news on Biden's mental capacity is probably not good.
00:28:02.980Yeah, a man who admits now he only works between 11 and 4.
00:28:46.840He gave two interviews to black radio hosts in predominantly black communities.
00:28:52.580He knows what you just said, that he's got to shore up the black vote to take on these so-called elites with whom he's spent the past lifetime currying favor.
00:29:02.180These elites, these mega donors, the New York Times readers, the New York Times op-ed board, what's so on, editorial board.
00:29:08.300But it's on now, and he's going back to the core, core base.
00:29:11.980And so far, that base has not abandoned him so far.
00:29:42.320What can we glean from what we have seen and what information they have released?
00:29:46.180Up next, a brain health specialist, one of the most revered, Dr. Bredesen, joins me live.
00:29:52.580President Biden's team trying to do a late-night damage control effort after a disastrous press briefing where Kareem Jean-Pierre failed to answer basic questions about the president's health,
00:30:05.240and why a Parkinson's disease expert made numerous trips to the White House over the last 12 months.
00:30:11.620As we reported yesterday, the New York Post's John Levine first broke news that President Biden's personal doctor, a man named Kevin O'Connor,
00:30:19.560met with a Parkinson's disease specialist at the White House in January of this year.
00:30:24.900That specialist's name is Dr. Kevin Kinnard.
00:30:28.440Then came a report from Alex Berenson that Kinnard actually visited the White House's residence clinic nine times over the past year.
00:30:36.700We took a look and saw the same on the White House logs.
00:30:39.220When asked about visits from Dr. Kinnard, the neurologist, to the White House, which Kareem Jean-Pierre had to know someone would ask about,
00:30:48.520she refused to answer, citing security concerns, even though the doctor's name is listed on the public White House visitor logs.
00:32:17.220I just want to point out, once again, Phil Houston, CIA, 25 years, created the Deception Detection Program for the CIA, used by the FBI, Secret Service, law enforcement around the nation, constantly points out that attacking the questioner, attacking the question, or convincing behavior are all signs of lying.
00:32:47.160Last night, around 9.30 p.m., the White House released a letter from said neurologist, well, from said personal physician to the president, Dr. Kevin O'Connor.
00:32:59.480And this letter tried to explain why the neurologist, Dr. Canard, the Parkinson's specialist, made all those recent visits.
00:33:06.920The majority of the letter was about Dr. Canard's biography and his credentials.
00:33:10.580It confirmed that Dr. Canard was the neurologist specialist who examined the president for each of his annual exams.
00:33:16.300It stated that Mr. Biden has, quote, not seen a neurologist outside of those annual physicals.
00:33:23.280It also suggested that Dr. Canard regularly visits the White House as part of his general neurology practice of helping support active duty military service members.
00:33:32.860However, the letter does not go into who Dr. Canard was meeting with during those visits in question and why.
00:33:39.660We know at least seven of the visits show Dr. Canard meeting with a woman who coordinates primary care visits for the president, the vice president, their families, and appointed cabinet members.
00:34:07.920Joining me now, a specialist in brain health who was on this program back in June 2022 to discuss the signs of dementia and other brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's in a special we were doing at the time around the president's health.
00:34:22.300Dr. Dale Bredesen is the senior director of Precision Brain Health at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute and the author of the book, End of Alzheimer's, which is actually an amazing read with so much information.
00:34:33.300You should get it irrespective of your thoughts about President Biden.
00:35:06.320And, you know, as you alluded to, the Goldwater Rule prohibits physicians from making an actual diagnosis without meeting with the person, examining them, et cetera.
00:35:16.880So these two conditions are relatively common.
00:35:20.680There are over a million people in the United States with Parkinson's.
00:35:23.900There are over a million people with Lewy body disease.
00:35:26.540And as you indicated, these are often wrapped together because they both feature a specific protein, which is called alpha-synuclein.
00:35:35.820Now, you know, when we talk about Alzheimer's, we talk about amyloid and we talk about tau.
00:35:40.500When you're talking about Parkinson's and Lewy body, it is these this alpha-synuclein, which makes up Lewy bodies.
00:35:47.520Now, if it's predominantly in the brainstem and you present mostly with movement problems, that is Parkinson's disease.
00:35:55.820If it's predominantly throughout the cerebrum, throughout the major part of the brain, and you're presenting first with cognitive change and then you may develop some Parkinsonism later, then that's called Lewy body disease.
00:36:09.000But as you can see, they're closely related in their neuropathology.
00:36:14.900And since you're talking about cognitive changes as well as potentially some motor changes, then you would probably be thinking about, you know, are there Lewy body issues?
00:36:26.600But again, yeah, you can't make a diagnosis without evaluating the person.
00:36:30.580And of course, it's concerning because there is so much of what we do to devote to patient confidentiality.
00:36:37.620And of course, what's being asked right now is just the opposite.
00:36:40.780I know it's different when you become president, right?
00:36:44.300It's like there's just, you know, HIPAA and all the other privacy laws are kind of out the window.
00:36:48.800So can you just explain the difference?
00:36:51.720And I want to get into some of the symptoms of these things a little bit more.
00:36:54.480But can you explain the difference between a neurological exam and a cognitive exam?
00:38:15.800What's really been missed here is that there is a tremendous amount of advance in brain aging, in neurological testing and in age related testing.
00:38:27.600Just in the last couple of years, things that weren't available before.
00:38:31.600So the reality is you don't need to speculate.
00:38:34.520There are specific tests that can be done very easily today.
00:38:38.860So there are blood tests, things like P-Tau-217 and GFAP and neurofilament light.
00:38:45.880These are new blood tests on the Alzheimer's side, and they're actually quite good and quite sensitive.
00:38:52.380P-Tau-217 in particular is specific for Alzheimer-related conditions.
00:38:58.780And so it'll even see it before you have major symptoms.
00:39:02.900On the other hand, there are some new tests for Parkinson's and Lewy body.
00:39:06.960And so there is one that's called SYN-1, S-Y-N-1, which is a simple skin biopsy.
00:39:14.180There is coming a wonderful test where you literally can take a small amount of sweat and you can look with mass spectrometry at a specific pattern of molecules that has turned out to be closely related to whether you have Lewy body disease, Parkinson's or not.
00:39:35.620You can look at specific imaging in PET scans, for example, and you can look at fluorodopa uptake, for example, in Parkinson's.
00:39:46.100So the reality is that instead of all the speculation, of course, it would be very easy to to look at those specific tests and know exactly where you stand.
00:39:55.440So if they took such an exam, any of the ones you just mentioned, and it showed the president didn't suffer from any of those, it would be very simple to do and very simple to release to the public to quell some of the fears.
00:40:22.240An extremely detailed neurologic exam was, again, reassuring.
00:40:25.340This is according to this latest letter we just got in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorders such as stroke, MS, Parkinson's or ascending lateral sclerosis, nor are there any signs of cervical myelopathy.
00:40:42.000So what does that mean in layman's terms?
00:40:45.660Yeah, what that means in layman's terms is that the nervous system is intact.
00:40:49.680So, of course, as you develop Parkinson's or as you develop Alzheimer's, you begin to have specific problems.
00:40:57.120And what they're saying is that those were evaluated.
00:41:00.860He did not have any symptoms to suggest stroke, Parkinson's disease, as you mentioned, myelopathy, which is just damage to your spinal cord, any of those things that can be a problem.
00:41:11.340So that's certainly a very good sign and suggests that they they've looked carefully at the function of his brain and spinal cord and not found any problems.
00:41:23.480So, again, not asking you to diagnose President Biden, who you haven't examined, but you saw, I'm sure, as we all did, what happened at that debate.
00:41:31.240And the stiffness of his movements over the past year, the mouth agape, the sort of the glazed, waxy complexion and eyes, the inability to remember basic facts that we absolutely know he knows or knew, you know, the confusion, the inability to end sentences that he's begun.
00:41:53.480And what I mean, could that just be aging?
00:41:57.320Because Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel has lifelong Democrat, part of the Emanuel brother, you know, triumvirate oncologist.
00:42:04.900He came out and said this could be a neurologic or neurologic problem, or it could just be advanced aging.
00:42:45.680You are trading over your many years of wisdom and developing wisdom and experience.
00:42:51.440You are trading some degree of resilience.
00:42:54.220If you look at what changes from cradle to grave, the two major things that change, the two biggest changes are in your mitochondria.
00:43:03.460Those are the batteries of your cells and their DNA develops mutations over time.
00:43:08.220And then the other thing is your ability to respond to stress.
00:43:11.840So you take a very young person and you're changing time zones and keeping them up all night and flying around and having back to back, you know, 30 meetings in a row and all these sorts of stuff.
00:43:24.540You know, when I was an intern, you know, when I was in my 20s, I would stay up all night for two or three nights in a row, which was horrible.
00:44:31.960And you're going to see when there is a tremendous amount of stress that it's going to be tougher for anybody who is an octogenarian compared to a quintogenarian.
00:44:44.320Mm hmm. And certainly for the president of the United States, which is literally probably the most stressful job on Earth,
00:44:52.160just given the stakes of what you have to deal with in that role.
00:44:56.040Can I just I just want to play you one answer of his from the debate.
00:44:59.260And I thought this one was very telling because it was on the subject of abortion, which was meant to be a softball, Dale.
00:45:05.600You know, I mean, this is a Democratic politician who spent his life advocating for pro-choice policies.
00:45:09.660And his answer was so meandering and strange, it left everyone, especially The New York Times, as I pointed out earlier in the show,
00:45:16.960really scratching their heads about what is this? What's happening? Here it was.
00:45:21.660It's a terrible thing, what you've done.
00:45:23.900The idea that states are able to do this is a little like saying we're going to turn civil rights back to the states.
00:45:30.960Look, there's so many young women who have been including a young woman who just was murdered and he went to the funeral.
00:45:38.800And the idea that she was murdered by by by an immigrant coming in, they talk about that.
00:45:45.680But here's the deal. There's a lot of young women to be raped by their by their in-laws, by their by their spouses, brothers and sisters by just it's just ridiculous.
00:45:56.760OK, first, he wasn't able to say what the trimesters were because he tried and failed.
00:46:02.860Then in an abortion answer, he brought up a girl killed by an illegal immigrant, Lakin Riley, who was not pregnant.
00:46:09.080It had nothing to do with abortion whatsoever.
00:46:11.500And then he ended it by saying a lot of women are raped by their sisters in trying to justify pro-choice policies.
00:46:18.140Dale, I don't know what was happening there. What what was happening there?
00:46:21.560Yeah, I mean, I think he was bringing in the earlier issues from from Mr. Trump related to the immigrants and, you know, the people being killed and all these sorts of things.
00:46:32.560So I think he was, you know, he's hitting on more than one thing at once.
00:46:36.240You know, understandable. But I understand your point.
00:46:40.380It could you know, could it have been more crisp?
00:46:43.000I think everybody and I'm sure that as Mr. Biden himself said, he had a bad night, so I'm sure it probably could have been a little crisper.
00:46:51.820But I think he was addressing the point that turning this back to the states, it was not a good idea.
00:46:58.800You're being a lot more generous to him than than I have been.
00:47:02.000I don't. Lakin Riley had not been brought up and no one gets raped by their sister and needs an abortion.
00:47:07.480Literally. Yeah, of course. I mean, it's just of course, totally nonsensical that this is the kind of answer that has caused such deep alarm.
00:47:15.320Well, you know, you said it yourself earlier.
00:47:43.400And so, yes, you have to take into account how are you going to deal with stress and how are you going to set it up so that you get the best results?
00:47:51.160I mean, I think, you know, again, it's a political question about the the achievements.
00:47:56.700I think many would argue that the achievements of the current administration are quite impressive.
00:48:01.820Of course, others would say, well, we don't like them.
01:28:06.600There was actual tears being shed over the idea that they were riding with Biden.
01:28:10.580But again, he's the national co-chair of Biden's campaign.
01:28:14.580Like, what else is he supposed to say?
01:28:16.960And like, I, you know, I just don't think they have a plan B that is workable at this point.
01:28:24.740Like, the fact that we've been having this conversation for two weeks means that they are trying to figure something out other than riding with Biden.
01:28:33.880But the fact that they haven't come to any consensus at all is evident by the fact that the newspapers are still talking about riding with Biden being a bad deal.
01:28:41.240And, you know, so James Claiborne's in a rough spot.
01:28:44.220Bill Burton, who used to work for the Obama campaign as a spokesman, had a piece out recently saying this is it would be a disaster to go with anyone other than Kamala.
01:28:51.500And we went back earlier on her unpopularity and he was saying, imagine this, imagine they do do the mini primary and someone like, let's say, Gavin Newsom wins it.
01:29:00.760But she's still in the VP role, right?
01:29:50.240Um, Biden backer, representative Juan Vargas, Democratic California.
01:29:55.040It's the stupidest thing I've ever seen.
01:29:57.200Um, who's calling the president's critics, a circular firing squad via political closely watched house minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries opened the private meeting with remarks about unity.
01:30:06.480According to one member who interpreted those comments as support for Biden.
01:30:11.040Jeffrey's message, uh, according to representative Garcia, Democrat of Illinois was to stay together and listen to each other.
01:30:19.920But one member who attended today's democratic caucus meeting, uh, tells who is this reporter, Katia Goba, um, the morale of the caucus is at historic lows.
01:30:31.240When I asked if they would compare it to a funeral, like others have, they said that is an insult to funerals.
01:30:41.040And finally, political headline house Dems, sad venting session yields no clear path forward on Biden's future.
01:30:56.800I would be really curious to S to see if Jimmy Carter is watching the news on this because in 1980 live option, there was a senator who, who, who, there was a senator who's who a Democrat who told Jimmy Carter,
01:31:11.040that he couldn't win and led a charge to try to replace him, that senator was Joe Biden.
01:31:29.600Honestly, Jimmy Carter might be in better cognitive shape than Joe Biden right now.
01:31:33.600Honestly, honestly, the thing that I, that I find just this whole episode just makes me angry.
01:31:41.800I should be more cynical than this, but it does still make me angry is the idea that they've had unprecedented unity within the Democratic conference.
01:31:48.280There wasn't a single one of them that took a look at the inflation reduction act that summarily increased inflation on the American people and increase the suffering of their constituents.
01:31:57.720There wasn't a single one of them that popped up and said, like, maybe this isn't a good idea.
01:32:02.080Even when the results became evident, they never wanted to revisit it because that had total unity.
01:32:07.960But as soon as their political prospects are damaged, oh, we have actual tears.
01:32:14.040Actually, not a single tear shed for your constituents, but like the narcissism and the cynicism that is today's Democratic Party has given grave concern over the fact they might not be able to keep their jobs.
01:32:27.920And now we're all going to have to pretend, I guess, that we believe this medical doctor from the White House, that the Alzheimer guy or the Parkinson's guy, he only ever examined Biden on his annual physical.
01:32:38.840And all those other visits were for some unnamed other person at the White House who they will not give us any information about.
01:32:45.480And it doesn't matter that he was actually meeting with this particular woman who coordinates primary care visits for the president, the vice president, their families and appointed cabinet members.
01:33:00.760And they won't answer whether that when this Alzheimer's or Parkinson's doctor came, he was consulting with the main doctor, Kevin O'Connor, about President Biden.
01:33:09.540Even though the vast majority of the visits followed a very public incident with President Biden showing cognitive decline, they won't answer any.
01:33:17.340We're supposed to just accept this doctor letter like he's fine.
01:33:21.020And meanwhile, I'll give credit to who is it, Politico, who puts this in its reporting.
01:33:27.100Experts in presidential health and its long history of medical cover ups said the close personal bonds between the Bidens and this Dr. O'Connor, that's the main doctor, intensified the inherent conflicts in relying on this White House position to accurately tell us anything.
01:33:40.980Burt Park, author of The Impact of Illness on World Leaders and an Advocate for Independent Oversight of President's Health, called the Biden family bonds one of the many concerns about relying on O'Connor to publicly disclose serious medical issues.
01:33:51.060But we cannot depend on the presidential physician to come clean.
01:33:55.680And then this from Jacob Apple, professor at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York, who has studied the political dilemmas posed by the president's health, saying the members of the public are fooling themselves if they believe the president's doctor is there to keep them fully informed.
01:34:09.060And also pointing out HIPAA forbids physicians from disclosing medical information that a patient wants to keep secret.
01:34:17.920All Joe Biden has to say is we're not releasing anything about cognitive issues and these physicians hands are tied.
01:34:26.940And yet we're supposed to just take this little letter and say, OK, I guess he's fine.
01:34:35.000He had Ronnie Jackson, who's currently a congressman, was previously the White House doctor.
01:34:39.700Immediately after the support came out, he said, well, this is absolute bunk, because if it was just two doctors consulting and not an actual medical checkup, that would have taken place in the EEOB.
01:34:49.220This this doctor was specifically allowed access into the White House residence, which is not where you go unless you're checking in on the president.
01:34:56.060That's good info. That makes perfect sense. There are some weird questions with this mug.
01:35:00.740Thank you for raising that, because Kelly McGuire, who took a look into this for us and she's very smart.
01:35:06.160She doesn't make mistakes, was pointing out that the president's doctor heads up the White House medical unit, which includes about 30 medical personnel and is available for medical care at all hours of the day.
01:35:19.880OK, there's an exam room on the ground floor of the White House residence located next to the map room, as well as a larger set of offices in the EEOB.
01:35:26.720Now, she says those who receive care include the president, his immediate family, the vice president, White House staff members and, if necessary, foreign dignitaries and tourists.
01:35:35.480Well, we know it wasn't a foreign dignitary or tourist getting. I mean, come on.
01:35:38.200Well, she points out that each of the neurologist visits had him go to the residence clinic and we've been unable to determine if that specific area is meant for just Biden and his family.
01:35:49.800But you're saying that that it is, according to Ronnie Jackson, the previous White House doctor.
01:35:57.100Yeah, I mean, that's just. Yeah, I mean, it's it's tough for them because they keep getting caught in their lives.
01:36:02.360It used to have like they had like a month or two before the lies unraveled and now it's within minutes.
01:36:08.660We've had this like ongoing joke about like what is the most difficult job in the White House?
01:36:14.480Is it the bracket man who tries to correct the transcripts?
01:36:17.240Is it the advanced person who has to put teleprompters up for a seating of eight people?
01:36:21.660Or I'm now convinced it might be the attending on-call physician for Joe Biden.
01:36:29.060Oh, it didn't happen. I mean, you just memory hole at all didn't happen to say it didn't happen.
01:36:35.960I haven't been authorized. And then it's all well and good until your client, your patient agrees to do a presidential debate and has a complete meltdown in front of the American people.
01:36:45.500Look, guys, all I think is I don't know at this point whether Biden can be forced out.
01:36:50.240I think this is an absolute political calamity for the Democrats.
01:36:54.760I think Biden is, as Maureen Dowd put it, being incredibly selfish and short sighted.
01:37:02.080And I do think this is boiling down at this point, as our first guest, John Ellis, said to a fight between the white elites who read The New York Times and the core black constituency that makes up the base of the Democrat Party.
01:37:16.460But who will win? Who will side with Biden and who won't?
01:37:21.560Who will have the ultimate power? The next coming days will tell.
01:37:24.900Guys, great to see you. See you very soon.
01:37:26.540Great to see you. Absolutely. Thanks, Megan.
01:37:28.920All right. All the best. Tomorrow, Glenn Greenwald and Tulsi Gabbard.