Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy revealed for the first time on Wednesday that President Biden uses notecards in private meetings with small groups of people.
“He still has a teleprompter when you meet behind closed doors,” McCarthy told the “Bottom Line” co-hosts on FOX Business. “But the teleprompter are cards. I found when I met with him, it would just be a couple of them. He would read from the card.”
McCarthy said that it was difficult to “deviate” from Biden during private negotiations, referencing when he spoke with the president on the debt ceiling.
“He just sticks to the cards,” he said of Biden. “And if you go, if you deviate from the cards, he can’t continue onward there.
“Look, he has served the country, regardless whether you like it or not. I respect the man for serving the country. I thank him for that service, but he is not of the age that is best to be able to be serving in the presidency, especially the position that he is to going forward with what I have watched to serve again.”
McCarthy also said that he has known Biden for a long time and that the president was no longer “the same man” as he was in previous years.
McCarthy’s comments come after media reports that Biden relies heavily on notes, even at private fundraisers with donors.
Biden is prone to consulting notecards after calling on pre-selected donors who have questions at the closed-door events, Axios reported Friday.
“Biden’s reliance on notecards to help explain his own policy positions — on questions he knows are coming — is raising concerns among some donors about Biden’s age,” the article stated.
At 81, Biden is already the oldest president in American history, and the White House reeled earlier this month after a report by Special Counsel Robert Hur about Biden’s handling of classified materials referred to the president as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” who could not remember the timing of important life events.
In response, Biden White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Thursday, “Perhaps Speaker McCarthy should make a note of the following reporting on his own cards — so he doesn’t forget it again,” linking to an article citing McCarthy’s use of notes during meetings by the left-wing site HuffPost.
The White House also pointed to stories reporting McCarthy’s past comments on Biden’s mental fitness, including Politico and New York Times reports that he’d privately said Biden was sharp during their meetings. Also, he told Punchbowl News that Biden was “very professional, very smart” and “very tough” in their negotiations on the budget.
I appreciate McCarthy’s diplomacy as a necessity in public life, but I respect neither him nor Biden. Not at all.