A new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward features eyewitness accounts that claim President Joe Biden looked "frighteningly awful" and like a "senile grandfather" at fundraising events more than a year before he ended his bid for reelection.
According to the New York Post, Woodward's book, "War," quoted Liberties Journal President Bill Reichblum, who claimed Biden "never completed a sentence" at a fundraiser held in June 2023 at the home of philanthropists Michael and Susie Gelman.
"He would start to talk about something, jump somewhere else. He told the same story three times in exactly the same way and it meandered so much," Reichblum was quoted as saying in the book. "Frankly, my impression was there were times it was as though we didn't exist. He was just rambling and talking as to what came into his head."
Biden dropped out of the race days after the Republican National Convention and one week after the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Those followed Biden's widely panned debate performance against Trump in late June.
Many of the president's allies had defended his cognitive fitness before the debate and disputed claims he was mentally unfit to run for office. In the book, Woodward describes how several top Biden aides did not admit the full extent of his struggles until after it became apparent on the debate stage.
The book also revealed some Democrats observed peculiarities regarding Biden's behavior long before Democrat leaders called on him to withdraw from the race.
One party donor at a Silicon Valley fundraiser hosted by Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott in June 2023 was quoted in "War" as saying the president "could not wait to sit down and only took two pre-arranged questions."
Other witnesses at the same event claimed in the book Biden seemed to have difficulty giving his speech, despite having notecards to help him.
"It was 'like your 87-year-old senile grandfather,' wandering around the room, saying to women guests, 'Your eyes are so beautiful,'" Woodward wrote, quoting one anonymous guest.
However, at a second event on the same day, Woodward quoted venture capitalist Steve Westly as saying Biden was "energetic" and "wouldn't sit down for two hours."
According to the book, attendees at a Biden campaign fundraiser at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City also observed the president's declining state.
The attendees claimed Biden could not recall the word "veteran" and asked members of the audience what word was used to describe a person who "served in the military."
At one point during the event, an anonymous Hollywood executive reportedly confronted Biden, telling him he was "f*cking up your campaign."
"Every time you get out and walk, people think 'old,'" the executive said.