NY Post
President Biden struggled to answer a reporter’s question over the weekend on a topic he had just been briefed on, needing to reach for notes after being distracted by a cashier while checking out at a Michigan pie shop. The exchange reinvigorated concerns about Biden’s mental acuity. “Mr. President, let me know if I can ask you a question,” a member of the White House traveling press pool told the commander-in-chief. A smirking Biden — who was in the midst of paying for cherry pie at the register inside the King Orchards farm store in Central Lake, Michigan, Saturday — told the reporter, “Sure.” “With the most recent hack by the Russians, would you say that this means –” the reporter said before being cut off, asking about the mammoth cyberattack that hit over 200 US companies on Friday. “We’re not sure it’s the Russians,” Biden said. “I got a brief when I was on the plane. That’s why I was late getting off the plane.” Video of the exchange, taken by a different pool reporter, then becomes glitchy, though the president appeared to stop speaking entirely to insert his credit card into the chip reader. Before he started answering the reporter again, he was asked by the cashier if he needed his receipt before the audio momentarily went out and the video froze. “I’ll be in better shape to talk to you about it,” Biden said seconds later when the video returned, just before cutting himself off to pull out notes from his jacket breast pocket about the topic he had just been briefed on.
