Joe Biden Mental Fitness Concerns May Be ‘Deadly’: Anti-Trump Strategist

Strategist Steve Schmidt, a staunch Trump critic, is warning that the mental fitness accusations against President Joe Biden could be “deadly” if his re-election campaign does not focus on fighting those questions about his age.

“The allegations, though spurious, have the potential to be deadly,” Schmidt wrote in his Friday newsletter. “Though they are unfair, they are potent. Whining, complaining, crying, screaming and shrill denunciations against them won’t change that fact.”

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email.

Biden scored a legal win on Thursday after a years-long investigation into his handling of classified documents from the Obama administration concluded that criminal charges against the president were not warranted. But the special counsel report was politically damaging for Biden, painting a picture of a forgetful leader who had trouble recalling when he served as vice president, when his son Beau died, and “a crucial debate on troop levels in Afghanistan.”

Biden’s age is one of the biggest headwinds facing the 81-year-old’s re-election campaign. An NBC poll released Wednesday found that 76 percent of voters had major or moderate concerns about whether or not Biden has “the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term.”

“The 2024 campaign is now officially underway. Joe Biden’s campaign is now officially in the game,” Schmidt said about Thursday’s report.

Special Counsel Robert Hur’s critical assessment of Biden Thursday sparked fresh questions about the president’s competency and sent the White House into a frenzy as it sought to combat Hur’s portrayal of Biden. The administration hastily scheduled remarks at the White House where Biden blasted Hur and defended his memory.

“My memory is fine,” Biden told reporters before getting visibly angry about the claims that he forgot when his son died.

“How in the hell dare he raise that,” he said, adding, “I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away.”

The president also pushed back on a note in Hur’s report that said part of the reason Biden had not been charged was that a jury could see him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

In response, Biden told reporters, “I am well-meaning. And I’m an elderly man. And I know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve been president—I put this country back on its feet.

Schmidt commended Biden’s quick response to the report but warned the president that he would have to spend the rest of the 2024 race constantly fighting criticisms about his competency.

“The basement campaign of the Covid election will not work,” the strategist said. “The president is in the awkward and unfair position of proving the allegations false. He must. Every single day.”

Schmidt said he worried about the campaign ahead, cautioning Biden’s team from being “aggrieved or victimized” or looking “affronted, angered or defensive” if they wanted to win against former President Donald Trump in a 2024 rematch.

Surveys show troubling signs for Biden should he go head-to-head against Trump in November. Not only are the two men neck-and-neck in the polls, Trump has also been able to make gains among voting blocs that were critical to Biden’s 2020 win, like young voters and Black voters.

“The Biden campaign must brawl and fight and brawl some more,” he said. “The greatest liability is now in the middle of the ring. It is either true or not. The burden is on the president. A lack of rebuttal will become evidence of truth. Joe Biden has to demonstrate he is able. Period.”

“The Trump campaign will brutalize the president, and trust me when I tell you that they won’t be fair, just or restrained,” Schmidt added. “The special prosecutor’s report will be weaponized as it was intended to be. We have reached an appalling moment during which the smear dressed up as an official pronouncement is regarded as truth, as opposed to calumny. We are in deep trouble as a nation.”

Trump’s congressional allies have already pounced on the report.

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, “If Joe Biden is not mentally fit to stand trial, then he certainly isn’t mentally fit to be President of the United States,” while Representative Jim Jordan argued that the new report confirms, “Joe Biden isn’t fit for office.”