Joe Biden’s ‘Conspiracy of Silence’ Report Raises Questions

A new report from new York A magazine about a “conspiracy of silence” intended to protect President Joe Biden in his re-election campaign has sparked questions on social media.

On Thursday, the outlet published “The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden,” a story by Olivia Nuzzi, its Washington correspondent, that tells the story of a president whose fitness to serve has been whispered into question for months.

Nuzzi wrote about a speech Biden gave to a small group of “powerful Democrats and wealthy campaign donors” in New Jersey on June 29, days after his poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump. The 81-year-old mumbled in a raspy voice about his administration’s goals and accomplishments on the debate stage in Atlanta, and his team later said he had a cold and was suffering from jet lag.

“The content of his speech matters less than his ability to express it coherently, even if much of what he says will not be fully decipherable,” Nuzzi wrote of Saturday’s address. “His words have a tendency, as always, to slide into rhetorical pile-on, an affliction that has worsened in the four years since he ran for president for a third time in 2020.”

Nuzzi said: “The world watched Biden deteriorate. Democrats ignored the warnings,” a the wall street journal report released the day after the presidential debate that referenced instances where Biden appeared to struggle to lead conversations or avoided frank discussions altogether. The White House denied the report. Newspapercharacterization of Biden.

“In January, I began hearing similar stories from Democratic officials, activists, and donors,” Nuzzi wrote. “All of these people were supporting the president and working to re-elect him to a second term. After meeting with the president, they came to the same concern: Could he really keep this up for another four years? Could he even make it to Election Day?”

Newsweek reached out to the Biden campaign via email for comment.

On X, formerly Twitter, Christina Pushaw, who worked on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed 2024 presidential campaign, commented on Nuzzi’s reporting: “So, uh, who’s really running the country and why don’t journalists seem interested in reporting this information?”

Jordan Schachtel, who writes the Dossier blog on Substack, said on X: “Why didn’t your editors want this article to be published in January, February, March, April, May, or June?”

Nuzzi wrote in his article that the Democrats involved “were from similar social strata. They lived and frequented Washington, New York and Los Angeles. They didn’t want to tell their stories. They didn’t want to denounce the facts.”

Mehdi Hasan, editor and CEO of media company Zeteo and a former MSNBC anchor, quoted part of Nuzzi’s story on X: “Longtime friends of the Biden family, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, were shocked to discover that the president could not remember their names.”

He added in his message: “I am sorry that this is untenable and indefensible. Kamala Harris is here and ready to go.”

Although some have called for Biden to drop out of the race and be replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris or another leading Democrat, Biden has made it clear he is remaining in the race, and Harris has fully supported him.

The X account of Amuse, a conservative newsletter, questioned the validity of Nuzzi’s reporting, writing: “These stories were not credible then and now that dozens of governors and members of Congress have sat down with Biden and sworn that he is fully fit for office, they are even less credible. Why would so many elected officials risk their careers to vouch for him?”