President Joe Biden is completely in charge of the country due to cognitive decline, and a “shadow presidency” is controlling him, a Democratic National Committee staffer said.

Lindy Li, a member of the DNC’s National Finance Committee, expressed her concerns about the mental acuity of the 82-year-old president in an interview on NewsNation on Sunday.

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email and Li via social media for comment outside of general business hours.

Biden’s presidency has been marked by considerations about his cognitive abilities, on both sides of the aisle, which have been accentuated after his lackluster performance at the CNN presidential debate in June, which led to the suspension of his 2024 candidacy. They resurfaced after Vice President Kamala Harris’ election defeat, and the White House and several prominent Democratic figures were criticized for allegedly hiding Biden’s intellectual decline from the electorate and preventing the candidate from coming out ahead in a Democratic primary.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a detailed report on a White House already operating with a “diminished” Biden at the helm from 2021.

The report, citing dozens of sources, including Democratic lawmakers and former Biden staffers, said limits were placed on who Biden spoke with, what the president’s team said to him, and the types of information he received.

The White House has denied claims that Biden refused or isolated himself while in office.

Speaking to NewsNation Prime, Li said the allegations in the are “one more confirmation of what we know” about Biden in recent years.

“People don’t want to hear the truth, and it’s extremely devastating in so many regards, because President Biden, as a human being, is no longer capable of executing the duties of the commander in chief,” Li said.

“Also, we kind of have a shadow presidency of his inner circle of people…certain people around him, his senior advisers, who are essentially running the country.”

When asked by anchor Natasha Zouves to expand on her claims about a “shadow presidency,” Li responded, “If we were to delineate that term as an inner circle that is very close to the ranks, that protects it at every moment. . . And I know them, so I’m sorry, but it’s true.

Li added that the president is “more than just the president” and that the people around Biden are “highly competent and able to execute duties.”

He told NewsNation that he saw Biden’s evident decline “accelerate” in 2023, but that the president was doing “pretty well in 2020. “

On June 28, after Biden’s June debate, Li wrote on Facebook: “I’m with President Biden a few minutes after tonight’s debate. Here we are at his watch party.

“He is amazing and kind as always, remembering little main points about me and my family.

“I don’t care what the experts say about this wonderful man: I’ll be Team Biden. “

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Newsweek: “President Biden has earned the most accomplished record of any modern commander-in-chief and rebuilt the middle class because of his attention to policy details that impact millions of lives, his active solicitation of diverse opinions. President Biden speaks with members of his cabinet daily, and with most members multiple times a week, staying in close touch with them about implementation of key laws and strengthening our national security.

“During each and every presidency, there are inevitably some in Washington who don’t spend as much time with the president as they would like; However, that never means that the president doesn’t have deep interaction with others, as this president does. “

Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of Washington told the Wall Street Journal: “The Biden White House is more isolated than most. I spoke to Barack Obama many times when he was president, and I wasn’t even chairman of the House [Armed] Services Committee. Camera. “

Joe Manchin, an outgoing Democrat turned independent senator from West Virginia, told the Wall Street Journal: “I just imagine the president just lost this fight: the ability to continue to stay, just crush it, crush it, grind it. “

Link Lauren, a former top aide to independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , posted on of years. ‘Now. ‘So why did you protect him and say he was fine? Even after that terrible June 27 debate on CNN, I’ve never noticed anyone getting so strong so fast.

Biden will leave office on January 20, when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in. Trump, 78, will overtake Biden as the oldest sitting U.S. president in history during the Republican’s second term in office.

Ewan Palmer is a reporter for Newsweek News in London, UK. It focuses on American politics, domestic politics, and the courts. He joined Newsweek in February 2018 after spending several years working at the International Business Times UK, where he reported primarily on crime, politics, and current affairs. Prior to that, he worked as a freelance editor after graduating from the University of Sunderland in 2010. Languages: English. Email: e. palmer@newsweek. com.