If You're Not Worried About Joe Biden Yet, Here Are The Reasons You Should Be

Joe Biden might not have to stress over another presidential term, but let's be real: there are still plenty of reasons to keep an eye on him. He has undergone a long transformation up until this point, but no moment highlights our cause for concern more than Biden's decision to step down from his re-election campaign and hand the torch to Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. Reactions were varied, but rumors had already swirled about the octogenarian's ability to complete another four years in office, which would have extended his record as the oldest American president — a record he set when first elected at 78 years old.

With Donald Trump defeating Harris and on his way to a second term at the White House, Biden has exacerbated a number of pre-existing worries with recent political decisions that further call his judgment into question. Unfortunately, for his critics and supporters alike, if you weren't worried about Biden before, there are now more than enough reasons why you should be.

Joe Biden saw the opportunity, and despite telling us that he wouldn't, he took it. Biden made the politically fraught decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who was found guilty of three charges related to lying about his illegal drug use when purchasing a revolver in 2018. In a statement from the White House, Biden wrote that the pardon was "full and Unconditional ... For those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024." We wish it could be seen as a silver lining, given how the Biden family has been marred by tragedy, but it's not that simple.

The worrisome fact is that Biden told us he believed in the judicial process to come to the right conclusions. "I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him," Biden said at a press conference in June 2024. The issue is seen as politically dicey since the judge in Hunter's case was Donald Trump-appointed, turning the issue into a bit of a Trump vs. Biden showdown and making the guilty verdict feel like an extension of Trump's long, politically motivated campaign against Hunter. On the flip side, the pardon makes Biden's actions feel like a misuse of power to protect a family member from the consequences of their actions. But Biden saw it differently, writing, "I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice." Unfortunately, broken promises never look good on anyone.

Joe Biden's voice has always been tied to who he is. From his triumphant story of overcoming a childhood stutter to being the gruffly affable, aviator-wearing VP to President Obama, we've always been able to count on Uncle Joe to say it like he means it (though he's censored his true feelings about Trump). But that seems to have changed, and we really heard it during the 2024 presidential debate against Donald Trump. Biden's voice was worn down and came out closer to a whisper than the boisterous and decisive Biden who beat Trump in 2020. In a YouTube video by The Wall Street Journal, video comparisons of Biden answering similar questions make the passage of time more evident. Where Biden was once quick to answer and followed up with brisk, personable answers, in 2024, his voice is weaker and softer, now with a distinct rasp, even trailing off at times.

Then, in Biden's farewell address to the American public after stepping aside for Kamala Harris to run, his voice somehow sounded even worse. His speech was erratic as he slipped up on his words, with a halting cadence that only alleviated some worry in the sense that Biden was handing the potential keys to the White House to someone else. Perhaps knowing what we were all focused on, Biden said, "There is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. There's also a time and a place for new voices — fresh voices. Yes, younger voices."

The effects of aging are difficult enough as is, but when the entire nation can see it broadcast live on television and that person is the president of the United States, the implications are far more worrisome. The University of California San Francisco's Weill Institute for Neurosciences defines normal age-related cognitive decline on its website as "overall slowness in thinking and difficulties sustaining attention, multitasking, holding information in mind and word-finding." After Joe Biden's presidential debate against Donald Trump, many couldn't help but notice that Biden exhibited more than one of the above. One anonymous neurologist who spoke to The New Yorker was listening to the debate on NPR and claimed that Biden's speech patterns made her immediately think of those of her patients and said, "It activated my clinical Spidey sense." In fact, it got her so concerned that she joined other neurology colleagues to draft an open letter that expressed their concerns that Biden might have cognitive impairment, though she ultimately never published it.

To make the age-related cognitive decline more worrisome, Biden also underwent separate surgeries for two brain aneurysms in 1988. According to Politico, he was treated by Dr. Neal Kassell, who said, "I can tell you with absolute certainty that he had no brain damage, either from the hemorrhage or from the operations that he had. There was no damage whatsoever." While it's been 36 years since the surgery, and Biden has been in the White House both as vice president and president since, it feels like relevant background information when assessing whether someone is cognitively fit to hold the nuclear codes.

Joe Biden was hit with COVID-19 in July 2024, and while he eventually recovered, he seemed worn down by the respiratory virus in the time since. In a statement put out by the White House at the time of diagnosis, Biden was initially treated with Paxlovid and quarantined at his home in Delaware to recover. But when Biden made his first public appearance afterward, while he managed to make it up the stairs and onto Air Force One, Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical professor of medicine and Fox News medical contributor, said, "His walking on the stairs looks fine, better than usual, but it's strange that he didn't say hello to anyone. All his energy went into walking." And while COVID-19's immediate symptoms involve fevers, cough, and runny noses, there are long-term worries about "brain fog," or, as Siegel told Fox News, "Post-COVID syndromes and long COVID have been shown to affect underlying neurological conditions."

The diagnosis and treatment also came on the heels of his performance in the presidential debate against Donald Trump. What makes the COVID-19 diagnosis even more worrisome is that just four days after testing positive, Biden officially stepped aside from the presidential campaign and endorsed Kamala Harris. And as anyone who has had COVID knows, it's certainly no joke, but the fact that the illness could be interpreted to have instigated Biden's decision to reverse his previously staunch opposition to stepping aside from his campaign – well, that makes us worry that the virus had a larger effect on him than we may ever know.

You would think that after a lifetime in politics, when retirement finally arrived (whether you wanted it to or not), Joe Biden might kick up his feet and finally relax. That is not the case. In an interview with ABC's "The View," Biden remarked that he's "not going away." Biden intends to stay busy with the various institutions that he supports, saying, "Although I'm leaving, I'm not going away because there are so many other things I want to do in terms of the Biden Institute on foreign policy, Biden Institute in Delaware on domestic policy, to keep the things going that we started. And I think we'll get it done."

As for how visible he will be in the public eye as a counterweight to the incoming Trump administration remains to be seen. An area that could be worrisome for the Trump administration is his stance on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. Reports suggest that Biden has grown politically apart from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the years. Speaking to "The View" about a picture that he gave to Netanyahu, Biden said he signed it, "[Netanyahu], I love you, but I don't agree with a damn thing you say." While he will no longer be the president, one needs to look no further than fellow former President Barack Obama to see how influential Biden can become in his own retirement.