Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Monday that President Joe Biden's debate performance and subsequent unedited TV interview exposed the facade about his mental decline and threw his handlers — "puppet masters" — into an "absolute tailspin" and the Democratic Party into chaos.
Van Duyne told "The Chris Salcedo Show" that it's now clear that Biden has not been running the country for the past 3 1/2 years.
Further, Biden's gaffes during the debate with Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump were hardly his first, she said.
"We've been bringing this up since we saw the first debate since he ran for president in 2020," Van Duyne told Salcedo. "You've got his handlers who, like, as long as he is taking their, you know, their advice, as long as he's doing their bidding, they're happy to protect him. But they are in absolute tailspin right now. You just see the chaos in the Democratic side because, yeah, while he may step down, who are they going to run? Is it going to be [Vice President] Kamala [Harris]? She's actually has lower polling numbers than Biden has.
"But you are seeing these people who are so used to being the puppet masters; they're so used to it. And they have tried to control the media; the media has spun this lie out to the public," Van Duyne added. "Even under Biden's [debate] rules, where you couldn't interrupt, you didn't have an audience; everything was so, like, prescribed just for him; even under those circumstances, having a full week — not doing his job as president — but having a full week to prepare, you still saw on the national — international — stage … how miserably he failed and projected how much his mental decline has been. They can't fake it anymore. They can't protect him anymore."
And Biden's interview that aired Friday night with ABC News confirmed it for Van Duyne.
"And then that 22-minute interview with George Stephanopoulos, if that was not the exclamation point on that debate performance, I don't know what was," Van Duyne said. "This is a president who has failed in his policies for the last 3 1/2 years, and God knows who's been actually running the country. But it's apparent from these two performances that it's not this president.
"And you are seeing the Democrats, the chaos masters, at absolute chaos form right now, freaking out, wondering what they're going to do next."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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