Hollywood and Obama should be judged for covering up Biden’s frailty

One year ago this month, attendees packed the 7,100 seats inside the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to watch a parade of A-list celebrities — George Clooney! Julia Roberts! Barbra Streisand! — unite in a common goal: to raise more money for President Biden’s re-election campaign than had ever before been tallied for a single fundraising event. By that standard the evening was a smashing success: Over $30 million, a record, was raised.

“How important the event was to his re-election bid could be seen,” the Associated Press reported, “in Biden’s decision to fly through the night across nine time zones, from the G7 summit in southern Italy to Southern California, to attend.”

Nothing was left to chance. Outside the Peacock, riot police ringed the Gaza protesters; inside, the biggest weapon was rolled out. Former President Barack Obama appeared onstage with his old No. 2, the pair of presidents interviewed by the ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. Their recurring theme: A second Trump presidency would ruin America.

Obama called the current moment “a by-product of 2016,” when, he said, “a whole bunch of folks . . . sat out . . . Hopefully, we have learned our lesson, because these elections matter.” When Roe v. Wade came up, and the audience hissed, Obama scolded them: “Don’t hiss; vote.”

Still sharp, still charming, the familiar smile still beguiling, the forty-fourth president deployed all his gifts to urge the high rollers at the Peacock — and by extension, all Americans — to support Biden with money and votes: the most precious commodities a civic-minded American can be asked to invest.

The only problem was: Biden. At the event’s end, as he and Obama waved goodbye with Kimmel, the incumbent became catatonic, just as he had five days earlier, at a Juneteenth concert at the White House. His whole body froze, as if immobilized by a science-fiction ray-gun. Obama had to guide his friend, gently but firmly, off the stage.

As the Washington Post later reported, the commander-in-chief, keeper of the nuclear option, appeared “slow . . . frail.”

“Even with Kimmel posing softball questions, and Obama frequently interjecting to provide support,” the story said, “Biden struggled to explain key parts of his campaign platform, with attendees saying that the president frequently stumbled over his remarks, trailed off or was simply confusing.”

By June 27, Biden’s disastrous performance in the CNN debate with former President Trump in Atlanta had triggered an open revolt, with leading Democrats and rank-and-file primary voters clamoring for Biden to withdraw from the contest. Throughout the incumbent’s long political death-spiral, former President Obama — who had urged Biden against running in 2016 and 2020, worried the older man might “embarrass himself” — remained silent.

In what the Associated Press called “the most delicate political moment for Democrats since former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment,” Obama was seen struggling “to balance his role as a party elder and an honest broker for Democrats seeking advice while avoiding being seen as betraying his former vice president.”

Missing from this depiction was a key group: the American people.

In Biden’s season of torment, Obama may have deemed it prudent to keep his own counsel; but that doesn’t explain his presence at the Peacock Theater in the first place. Could someone as perceptive and politically astute as Obama, a bestselling memoirist and two-time winner of the Electoral College, really have failed to discern Biden’s unfitness until the fundraiser?

And even if that were true, why did Obama wait until after the debate, almost two weeks, before taking action to protect the electorate? By July 11, “Morning Joe” relayed the whispering of top Democrats who believed Obama was “working behind the scenes to orchestrate” Biden’s withdrawal.

In short: What took him so long?

Barack Obama entered office with a Gallup approval rating of 67% and, after sinking to 40% in 2011, left office with a robust 59%. Polling on former presidents is scant; but Gallup still has Obama at 59%, while a recent YouGov survey lists him at 62%.

What does it say for a man who, trusted by so many, colluded in a lie to them — that Joe Biden was fit for office — and moreover participated in an enormous transfer of wealth, $30 million in a single evening, to prop up that lie until it became impossible even for the most deluded souls to believe?

Rather than use his enduring appeal to force the Democratic Party to do the right thing in mid-2023 — when Biden was still officially mulling whether to seek re-election — Obama held his tongue and hoped for the best. For the winner of the 2017 Profile in Courage Award, the crucible of 2024 was not a Profile in Courage moment.

Obama’s historical legacy won’t rest entirely on the arc and perceptions of his presidency. His actions since 2017 matter, too; and in covering for Biden for so long, Obama displayed a contempt for our democracy, and his own party, unbefitting of a two-term president.

Jimmy Carter’s post-presidency helped lift his standing in history. For Barack Obama, at least so far, the narrative runs in the other direction. 

James Rosen is chief Washington correspondent at Newsmax and the author, most recently, of “Scalia: Rise to Greatness, 1936-1986.”