Democrats under fire for not sounding alarm earlier on Biden

Democratic leaders and lawmakers are coming under growing scrutiny for not blowing the whistle sooner on what is widely perceived to be President Biden’s decline during the final two years of his presidency.

Some Democrats fear there is going to be a lot more talk as members of their party wrestle over what went wrong in the 2024 election and how to chart a course going forward.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who in February dismissed talk about a decline in Biden’s mental and physical fitness as “right-wing propaganda," was challenged over the weekend by NBC’s Kristen Welker.

Welker put the question bluntly to Schumer by asking whether he "and other top Democrats misled” Americans about Biden’s “mental acuity.”

“Look, we didn’t,” Schumer answered tersely, before defending Biden’s record and character.

“The legislation we passed, one of the most significant groups of legislation since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society,” Schumer said, referring to the Inflation Reduction Act, which included a host of energy and climate provisions.

“Putting in 235 judges [on the federal bench], a record. And he’s a patriot, he’s a great guy,” Schumer added.

A handful of Democratic senators are now warning that there will be more calls for answers and accountability given that Biden’s condition became a glaring problem after he muddled through the first presidential debate against now President-elect Trump.

“I think it’s coming, big time,” said one Democratic senator, who predicted a wave of recriminations against Democratic lawmakers for not asking tough questions earlier about Biden.

The lawmaker argued that many Democrats in Congress were kept in the dark about Biden’s health and stamina.

“The fairest statement about it is that we never saw him. Really. I don’t know how long ago it was the last time Biden came to the caucus,” the senator added. “I think he declined over that period of time.”

But the senator said regardless of how much Democratic leaders really knew about Biden’s condition, Republicans successfully tagged Democrats as “corrupt” for not raising alarms sooner about the president’s fitness to serve a second term.

“I do believe a very successful charge of corruption” was tagged onto the Democratic Party as voters wondered “what the f--- are you talking about?” the senator said, referring to voters’ reactions to claims that Biden was fully fit to serve another four years in the Oval Office starting at age 82.

Schumer and other Democrats who spent time with Biden at the White House or at special events, such as the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in June, repeatedly vouched for his mental sharpness before his debate against Trump.

“I talk to President Biden, you know, regularly, sometimes several times in a week, or usually several times in a week. His mental acuity is great. It's fine. It's as good as it's been over the years,” Schumer declared in mid-February.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told The Hill in June that Biden seemed sharp and focused during the celebration of the allied invasion of Normandy that eventually liberated Western Europe from Nazi occupation.

Blumenthal said at the time he wasn’t counting on a “plan B” in the election, but he correctly predicted that the debate would be a “really critical point” in the race.

Former Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) also insisted that Biden appeared sharp, clear-eyed and plugged in when he visited their states during the springtime presidential campaign.

Blumenthal later said he was stunned by how badly Biden performed when he debated Trump only a few weeks after the D-Day anniversary.

“I was really surprised by the performance at the debate,” the Connecticut senator said.

He said Biden was “sharp, insightful, eloquent and completely on his game” while meeting with NATO allies in Normandy.

A second Democratic senator acknowledged Monday that many Senate colleagues had serious concerns about Biden’s energy, stamina and acuity well before the June 27 debate in Atlanta but didn’t want to undermine someone they saw as their likely nominee for president.

“You don’t undermine your nominee,” said the Democratic senator, explaining why there weren’t louder public calls from Democrats on Capitol Hill for Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race sooner.

“At the State of the Union is when people were poised to ask that question” about whether Biden should remain the nominee. But Biden quieted the criticism by performing “rather well” during that address to Congress, the senator said.

“We weren’t hearing stories from his inner circle who sees every day so much about his” physical and mental condition, the source said.

“It’s part of why the debate was such a shock to most,” the senator added.

The Democrat said members of Biden’s inner team need to be scrutinized about what actions they took to “insulate him from the concerns” that fellow Democrats harbored about his ability to win and fully serve a second term.

After Biden’s embarrassing performance at the debate, only a few Democratic senators thought he should remain the nominee.

Two Democratic senators told The Hill that only three of their Senate Democratic colleagues said they thought Biden should remain the nominee when the entire caucus met with senior Biden campaign officials at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters in July.

Months later, some Democratic senators harbor doubts that Biden’s campaign team fully expressed to the president the level of opposition felt on Capitol Hill to his remaining the nominee.

The message was later conveyed directly to the president when Schumer met with him one-on-one at the White House on July 17.

ABC News’s Jonathan Karl reported that Schumer had a blunt conversation with Biden in which he argued it would be best if he dropped out of the race. A spokesperson for Schumer said the leader “conveyed the views of his caucus.”  

A few Democratic lawmakers expressed their concerns months before the debate that Biden’s age and perceived fitness for office were becoming a major liability.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) told The Hill in February that Biden needed “to deal with the age issue.”

“He’s got to show some energy, and he’s got to show what the future is, not just beat up on Trump,” Welch warned at the time.

Another senator who requested anonymity told The Hill in February that they were "worried about a lot of people in the country” who think Biden’s not up to the task.

Two weeks before Trump’s inauguration, Democratic lawmakers are still sensitive about talking about the mistakes their party made during the past election cycle.

They would prefer to play offense against the incoming administration and the Republican majorities in the Senate and House.

“I would prefer that we look forward to what is going to be coming at us with this administration. That is going to create enough challenges for us. I’m focused on that,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii).