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Is Joe Biden’s Rumored ‘Cognitive Decline’ Getting Worse?

Fox News and right-wing Twitter are giving President Joe Biden a hard time for keeping his hand over his heart for part of the Indian national anthem at the White House on Thursday.

President Joe Biden, joined by First Lady Jill Biden, delivers remarks on the 1-year anniversary of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Wednesday, May 24, 2023, on the Grand Staircase of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Fox News and right-wing Twitter are giving President Joe Biden a hard time for keeping his hand over his heart for part of the Indian national anthem at the White House on Thursday.

As Fox tells the story, “while meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who traveled to the White House on Thursday, Biden appeared to mistake the intro of the Indian national anthem for the U.S. national anthem and placed his hand over his heart for a portion of the foreign song. Despite the event MC announcing to the crowd that the playing of the Indian anthem would be first, followed by the U.S. anthem, Biden raised his hand to his heart as soon as the music started.”

I’ve written a lot about Biden, and what I perceive is his cognitive decline. But the idea that Biden mistook the Indian national anthem for the US national anthem is a stretch.

First, it should be said that the incident is so insignificant it barely deserves comment. But since Fox and Co. wants to go down this road, let’s consider some alternative explanations that are much more likely.  

More likely explanations

One, Biden wasn’t paying attention.

Biden’s been doing this pomp and circumstance thing for a long time and it’s possible such events no longer hold his attention and he zones out and daydreams.

Or, similarly, it’s possible Biden was distracted, thinking about something more pressing, something somewhere within the envelope of his massive and consequential purview.

Either way, anthem protocols may not have been front of mind for Biden and frankly I don’t blame him.

Two, maybe Biden wanted to pay respect to his guest and fellow world leader. Hand over heart for a national anthem, any national anthem, is pretty standard stuff. And the entire point of the trip is to solidify bonds with India for the purpose of presenting a united front against China in the Indo-Pacific.

To that end, Biden is probably going into this Modi visit with a subconscious calibration to be nice and respectful. Hand over heart for the Indian anthem could have been consciously, or subconsciously, an outgrowth of the be-nice-to-Modi agenda.

Now, for what it’s worth, Biden made things awkward. Biden should have just kept his hand up for the entire anthem and he probably would have been alright. The awkward hand removal thing didn’t help his cause.

But again, who really cares?

Easy to criticize Joe Biden 

It’s easy to criticize Biden and it’s easy to make the case that Biden is too old to run for reelection.

Because Biden is too old to run for reelection.

It’s clear to even casual observers that Biden isn’t as sharp as he used to be.

But when that criticism overexpands to cover behavior and actions that aren’t really indicative of cognitive decline, that criticism becomes diluted and less credible. Maybe Biden’s hand-over-heart moment was awkward or aloof, but it’s not indicative of sundowning.

Twitter users ranting about the moment should find something better to do.

Graham Allen, for example, wrote “OMG!!!! Biden didn’t realize it wasn’t the National Anthem until the end of this video?! He slowly lowers his hand 30 seconds into it.”

Or Chris Plante who wrote that “Brain dead Biden puts his hand over his heart during the Indian national anthem. It took him awhile to figure out it wasn’t the American national anthem.”

Or Leo Terrell who wrote “He’s an idiot!”

Yet from my perspective, the only thing idiotic about the national anthem gaffe is the conclusions people like Leo Terrell and Chris Plante and Graham Allen are drawing.

Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.  

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Written By

Harrison Kass is a Senior Defense Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, he joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison has degrees from Lake Forest College, the University of Oregon School of Law, and New York University’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. He lives in Oregon and regularly listens to Dokken.