President Joe Biden schmoozed with lawmakers as he made his way of the House chamber following his 2024 State of the Union address, which was viewed positively by audiences, according to flash polling from cable networks.
“You were on fire! You were on fire! You were on fire tonight,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) said, showering the president with praise, after Thursday night’s speech.
“No one’s gonna talk about cognitive impairment now!” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) added to the compliments, a joking reference to recent criticisms and poor polling surrounding Biden’s age and mental fitness.
“Yeah,” Biden replied to Nadler, laughing. “I kinda wish sometimes I was cognitively impaired.”
The issues of Biden’s age and mental acuity have increasingly been under a spotlight due to special counsel Robert Hur’s controversial analysis of the president’s ability to recall details of events from years ago in his report on Biden’s handling of classified documents. Hur even described Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
