A debate rages over what exactly ails Joe Biden and whether, because of it, he should withdraw from the Democratic presidential nomination.
He and his relatives say there is nothing serious, apart from old age and the loss of a few steps.
Most Americans and leading Democrats are more alarmed.
He is almost 82 years old and there are serious signs of aging or worse, such as the early stages of a number of neurological diseases, in his slurred speech and wobbly body movements.
They see the leader of the free world, but only between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
They don’t think he should run for office again because they don’t think he’s healthy enough to win.
I can’t tell you whether Joe Biden will eventually succumb to internal party pressure and drop out of the race.
What I can say with absolute certainty is that if he were the head of the executive, not of the country, but of a publicly traded company, things would be very different.
Biden’s problems should have been exposed, because that’s the law.
He would have been forced to resign, not after his recent disastrous debate performance, but years earlier, when he first showed clear signs that he was wrong.
Unlike his top advisers, Vice President Kamala Harris or spokespeople who covered up Biden’s health problems, executives and board members who lie about their director’s health problems face a range of civil and even criminal penalties.
They have a legal “fiduciary” duty to keep owners of their shares informed of potentially market-moving events, also known as “material events.”
The health of the CEO is one of the major issues.
“If a CEO gave a speech or went to a meeting and exhibited similar behavior, the board would be meeting within hours to find a new leader. These are difficult and exhausting tasks,” one business owner and Biden supporter told me.
And that’s the law.
Yes, I know, being president is very different from being a CEO who runs a company.
The President commits to upholding the Constitution; the CEO, his management team and his board of directors commit to upholding national securities laws.
It is nevertheless rather odd that public shareholders – the people who own stock in a company – have more legal rights and disclosure when it comes to the health of the person protecting their investment than the American people do when it comes to the health of the person charged with protecting their country.
Council of Elders
Biden’s staff, his wife and family can and do obfuscate all day long the true nature of the president’s health, throw confusion over all those neurologist visits in recent months, deny the evidence about his stamina, essentially manipulate the American people with (until recently) the help of the Washington press corps without any legal retribution.
This is something that is very surprising to securities lawyers and CEOs — including those who support Biden — because they just run companies and he runs the entire country.
Recall that JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon, who may well be the most successful CEO of a generation, revealed not only heart disease in 2020, but also his throat cancer years earlier.
Dimon survived both and if you knew him, he was in much better physical and mental health than the current occupant of the White House.
Anti-democratic party
Given Biden’s physical condition, most people wonder whether he can handle the rigors of the 2024 presidential race, much less survive four years if reelected.
It’s a scandal that is only just beginning to unfold, with much of the mainstream media exposed and embarrassed for ignoring signs of Biden’s deteriorating health.
They feared it would help elect their worst nightmare: the monster known as Donald Trump.
They also deprived the American people of a presidential candidate who actually won a primary.
If Biden resigns, Harris or a number of possible replacements would be elected by the party elite at next month’s convention.
Often lost in political machinations, Joe Biden’s personal suffering is forgotten; it’s sad to see him suffer.
There is a growing consensus that Biden suffers from Parkinson’s disease, a neurological condition in which the patient experiences slurred speech, an inability to walk and, in later stages, uncontrollable body movements.
This is something I have some experience with as my father, a construction worker, suffered from a severe form of the disease due to various head injuries while on the job.
He died six years after being diagnosed at just 54.
Many patients with Parkinson’s disease do not have dementia; their problem is having functional cognitive abilities with an inability to articulate words normally or move properly when the brain sends a signal to the nervous system.
It’s frustrating to be trapped in a body that’s undergoing such trauma.
This explains why Biden gets angry easily, why he looks frozen.
And yes, it is a scandal that Biden is allowed to continue this charade, with many layers of lies to the American people.
Where is his family, or his cabinet members, or the vice president who steps up, or the lawmakers who invoke or demand the 25th Amendment and stop what amounts to elder abuse?
If Joe Biden was CEO they would have to do this or they might go to jail.
Charles Gasparino is the author of the forthcoming book “Go Woke, Go Broke: The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America.”
