The Independent's Andrew Feinberg presses White House on Biden's healthC-SPAN, Reuters
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00:00Go ahead, Andrew.
00:01Thank you, Karine.
00:02Two questions.
00:03Sure.
00:04You have repeatedly referred to the President's outing after the debate at the Watch Party,
00:10his remarks the next day in North Carolina, his appearances at fundraisers, his appearances
00:15this morning at the D.C. Emergency Operations Center.
00:19All those appearances were scripted events where he spoke from a telephone call.
00:24Not all.
00:25Most spoke from a telephone call.
00:26I know, but you said all, but not all.
00:27Okay, well, if you're correcting me, they're most.
00:28Let's just be at the speed.
00:29Okay, so they're scripted, spoken from a teleprompter.
00:33How are Americans supposed to get the sense that the President is fully engaged and capable
00:39and thinking off the cuff when he's reading from prepared remarks so often?
00:44And why can't he just come down here, the briefing room's 30 seconds away.
00:49Why can't he come down here and assure us, and the American people, that he's okay?
00:54And I have a follow-up.
00:56Okay.
00:57First of all, it wasn't all.
00:58It was, you know, when he was speaking in front of the audience, but it wasn't all.
01:04When you think about the tarmac, when you think about engaging at the Waffle House,
01:09when you think about engaging at the watch party and doing a very long rope line, and
01:15when he was at the tarmac, it was in the middle of the night, literally 2 o'clock at night.
01:20We all wanted to go to bed, but the President was certainly very focused and zeroed in on
01:26the American people who were out there, cheering him on and wanting to see him and take selfies
01:31and get a hug from this President.
01:33That's what you saw.
01:35And I don't know if you missed this, but I also share that he has done more than 40 interviews
01:40this year alone, and we're going to continue that.
01:42He's going to do an interview with ABC, George Stephanopoulos, this week.
01:46Those were unscripted.
01:48Those were unscripted.
01:49He's done more than 500 gaggles.
01:51Those are unscripted, and we want to continue to do that.
01:54We do.
01:56And we're going to continue to do that.
01:57There's going to be a press conference next week, a NATO big boy press conference, as
02:01Justin has reminded us, next week.
02:04And so that's going to be important as well.
02:06And I have a follow-up.
02:08Sure.
02:09One of my colleagues behind me shouted a similar question to what I'm going to be asking you,
02:15but I think given what happened on Thursday, given the reporting in the New York Times
02:23and other outlets about the president's more frequent lapses, losing his train of thought,
02:29all of us saw what happened on Thursday, where he simply could not form coherent answers
02:35to many or some, if you will, of the questions, and here to lapse into nonsensical answers
02:45at the end, we beat Medicare, for instance.
02:50I'm going to ask something delicate, and you may not like it.
02:54The president may not like to hear it if he's watching, but I think the American people
02:58need to get a yes or no answer on this.
03:01Does President Biden, at 81 years old, have Alzheimer's, any form of dementia or degenerative
03:09illness that caused these sorts of lapses?
03:13And it's a yes or no question.
03:16And if you don't know, why don't you, as one of his senior staff members, know?
03:21I have an answer for you.
03:22Are you ready for it?
03:23Yes.
03:24It's a no.
03:25And I hope you're asking the other guy the same exact question.
03:26Okay.
03:27Go ahead.
03:28Go ahead.
03:29A statement that Congressman Duncan put out.