‘Befuddled Old Man’ Biden and ‘Toxic’ Campaign Skewered By The Economist in Brutal New Cover

Screengrab via The Economist/X

British magazine The Economist marked July 4 with an attack on President Joe Biden, ripping him as a “befuddled old man” in reflection of his “awful” election debate performance and revealing a striking, if not ableist, cover image that featured a zimmer frame branded with the presidential seal.

The cover, which will go worldwide in the weekly print edition, offers a scathing critique from across the Atlantic and the magazine’s editors do not hold back in their furious analysis as they slam the Biden campaign also, calling the cover up “worse” than the debate itself.

“Biden’s claim that this election is between right and wrong is ruined by the fact that the existence of his campaign now depends on a lie,” editors write in justification.

The opening editorial begins: “The debate was awful for him, but the cover-up has been worse. It was agony to watch a befuddled old man struggling to recall words and facts.”

The editors write: “But the operation by his campaign to deny what tens of millions of Americans saw with their own eyes is more toxic than either, because its dishonesty provokes contempt. Democrats argue, rightly, that Mr Trump is unfit to be president. But the debate and its aftermath have proved Mr Biden unfit, too.

Unpacking the rationale, they continue: “First, because of his mental decline. Second, because of his insistence, abetted by his family, senior staff and Democratic elites, that he is still up to the world’s toughest job.”

In perhaps the kindest sentence in the introduction, editors acknowledge that ​​the president “deserves to be remembered for his accomplishments and his decency rather than his decline.”

But, in a finishing blow, returning to the serve, editors write: “Senior Democrats must call for change. It is not too late.”