Bill Clinton insists Joe Biden was in 'good shape' despite explosive claims of his cognitive decline

WASHINGTON, DC: Former president Bill Clinton said that he believes former president Joe Biden "was in good shape" and denied claims that the 82-year-old's cognitive decline left him unable to run the country.

This comes just weeks after the publication of CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson's new book 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again', which detailed Biden's alleged cognitive and physical decline. 

Bill Clinton says Joe Biden was in 'good shape' and denies cognitive decline claims

When asked about the allegations in the new book during his 'CBS Sunday Morning' interview, Bill Clinton responded, "I haven’t read the book. I saw President Biden not very long ago, and I thought he was in good shape."

He added, "I had never seen him and walked away thinking, he can’t do this anymore," insisting there was never a moment he doubted Biden’s mental state, according to the New York Post.

When asked why he hadn't read the book, Clinton said, "I didn’t want to because he’s not president anymore, and I think he did a good job," per Mediaite. 

He further mentioned, "I think we are facing challenges today with our president in our history. Some people are trying to use this as a way to blame him for the fact that Trump was reelected," suggesting that the claims made by insiders in the book might have been politically motivated. 

Nevertheless, the 42nd president did acknowledge that he was concerned about Biden's age during his reelection campaign.

"The only concern I thought he had to deal with was, could anybody do that job until they were 86? We’d had several long talks. He was always on top of his briefs," Clinton said.

Book details how Joe Biden's aides struggled with him during 2024 reelection campaign

The book, 'Original Sin', alleged that Joe Biden struggled to perform even the basic tasks of a political candidate during his 2024 reelection bid, with even pre-recorded campaign videos junked as "unusable."

The book stated, "The campaign was trying to make it look like the president was out there taking off-the-cuff questions from voters in public. But the event was closed to reporters, and the campaign had the full list of questions that people would ask," per the New York Post.

"Some said the problem was that the advance team had failed and the gym’s lighting was terrible. Others admitted that there was a deeper, far less fixable problem: Biden," the book added.

It further mentioned that the former president's aides also tried to limit his exposure to public scrutiny "in subtle ways."

"When a group wanted Biden to tape a five-minute video address to keynote an event, the White House usually responded by saying the video would be one to two minutes," Tapper and Thompson wrote.

They added, "However, even with the time limitation, Biden often couldn’t make it through one or two minutes without botching a line or two."

Internet trolls Bill Clinton for saying Joe Biden was in 'good shape'

Several internet users trolled Bill Clinton as he claimed Joe Biden "was in good shape" and denied allegations that the 82-year-old's apparent cognitive decline left him unable to run the country.

One wrote on X, "Has Bill checked into his own decline?" while another added, "Nobody believes it. Nobody."

A person said, "Do you play an instrument? Because you remind me of the band on the Titanic," whereas someone else remarked, "Clinton looks like c**p lately too, not a great endorsement."

 An individual shrugged off his remarks, writing, "Says another dem denier of reality!" 

"If Bill is known for anything, it's his honesty and integrity," another tweet read. One more jibed, "Yes thank you for lying."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.