Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she never witnessed signs of former President Joe Biden’s mental decline during her tenure, distancing herself from concerns raised after his widely criticised June 2024 debate performance.
“I never saw that person — not a single time, and I was in the Oval Office every day — that was on that debate stage,” Psaki said Friday on the Mixed Signals podcast.
Biden’s poor showing in the debate against Donald Trump prompted widespread calls, even from within his own party, to exit the 2024 race.
Left in 2022, only saw Biden once since
Psaki emphasised that she left the administration in May 2022 and has seen Biden in person only once since then. She cautioned against drawing conclusions about his health post-tenure.
“I think cover-up is such a loaded phrase,” Psaki spoke in the podcast when asked whether White House aides shielded the public from Biden’s cognitive decline. “I don’t know the facts of what was happening privately.”
“Aging happens quite quickly”
Acknowledging the effects of age, Psaki said, “I’m not a doctor, aging happens quite quickly.” She added, “Were things that people saw during that period of time that were similar to that or would’ve been in a category of that? I don’t know, possibly. And all these books are gonna tell us.”
Rejects cover-up narrative
Psaki argued that talk of a “cover-up” implies criminal wrongdoing, and that such accusations are dangerous when no legal violations have been proven.
“A cover-up is often like a crime. People use that term when they refer to Watergate or the covering up of not sharing public information about a war,” she said.
She insisted that her former colleagues were well-intentioned: “I would like to think they would not be a part of an active ‘let’s hide from the public what we see happening privately.’”
Media scrutiny and Republican narratives
When asked if the media had failed to scrutinise Biden’s mental fitness, Psaki admitted, “Maybe the media missed a lot, and so maybe in retrospect, there were major stories and moments missed.”
She also accused Republican operatives of shaping the public narrative prematurely. “There was an aggressive all-out pitching operation from the right-wing and from the Republicans about Joe Biden’s age and how he was in decline… the majority of which wasn’t true, in 2019-2022,” she said.
Biden’s reelection bid tarnished legacy, Psaki says
Psaki suggested Biden’s decision to run for reelection — and ultimately drop out in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris — had negatively impacted his legacy.
“I think a lot of his legacy has been based around this question of him running for reelection, him not being aware or not being honest with himself, about him not being [able] to do a full term,” she said.
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