Latest news with #cognitiveDecline
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Confused Biden Got ‘Lost in Closet' According to Secret Service Leak
A Secret Service whistleblower revealed that former President Joe Biden would get 'lost in his closet' some mornings in the White House, a MAGA senator has claimed. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told Fox News that the agent, who was assigned to Biden's detail, told him the story to illustrate his cognitive challenges while in office. 'He told me that Biden used to get lost in his closet in the mornings at the White House,' Hawley told host Sean Hannity. The senator, a fierce ally of President Donald Trump who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he had spoken to many Secret Service agents while investigating the assassination attempts on Trump last year. 'I mean, the guy literally stumbling around in the White House residence couldn't find his way out of his own closet,' Hawley added. 'The president of the United States.' Hawley was using the anecdote to illustrate why reports about Biden's declining mental acuity could constitute the biggest presidential scandal in history. 'This is outrageous. We were lied to,' he said in the Friday interview. A spokesperson for Biden did not return the Daily Beast's request for comment. While there have long been questions about Biden's age and mental sharpness, concerns have surged over the last month with the release of Original Sin, a book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson, which argues that a circle of aides and loved ones covered up Biden's decline. The book features firsthand accounts from Biden insiders about the president's mental confusion. In one case, aides considered getting Biden a wheelchair if he won re-election. In another, Biden reportedly did not recognize his longtime friend, actor George Clooney, at a fundraising event. Congressional Republicans have launched investigations into Biden's fitness while in office. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, for one, has touted the fact that he is looking into Biden's use of an autopen to sign orders, arguing that they may be invalid. Legal experts dispute this conclusion. Biden, 82, who announced that he has an aggressive prostate cancer as news from the book broke, sarcastically pushed back on its claims—and challenged its authors to a fight. 'You can see that I'm mentally incompetent, and I can't walk, and I can beat the hell out of both of them,' he told a CNN reporter, seemingly referring to Tapper and Thompson. Concerns about Biden's mental acuity forced him out of the 2024 presidential race—but only after a disastrous June debate against Trump. It left his replacement, former Vice President Kamala Harris, little more than three months to campaign. 'I don't have any regrets,' he told CNN. 'I think we're at one of those inflection points in history, where the decisions we make in the next little bit are going to determine what things look like for the next 20 years.'
Fox News
20 hours ago
- Health
- Fox News
Biden decline was so bad he got lost in White House closet, whistleblower tells Senator
As more reports emerge about former President Biden's alleged cognitive decline during his time in office, a Republican senator has made an explosive new claim: that Biden would sometimes get lost in a closet inside the White House while serving as commander-in-chief. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., made the stunning claim on "Hannity" Friday, citing an unnamed Secret Service whistleblower who Hawley said was assigned to Biden. "He [Secret Service member] told me that Biden used to get lost in his closet in the mornings in the White House," Hawley said. "I mean, the guy literally stumbling around in the White House residence couldn't find his way out of his own closet. The president of the United States. I mean, this is outrageous. We were lied to." Hawley said the claims were made to him while the senator was investigating the attempted assassination of Trump at a presidential campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. A gunman's bullet grazed the ear of then-candidate Trump while one attendee, Corey Comperatore, was fatally struck. Hawley said the brewing scandal about the Biden administration's use of an autopen to sign executive orders amounts to "one of the worst constitutional crises of our country's history.""We need to find out who actually signed off, so to speak, on all those autopen signatures and all of those pardons and all of those clemencies." "It's a rogue's gallery of crooks and criminals and terrible people, rapists and others, I mean who actually was doing that, we know it wasn't Biden, he didn't know anything about it. "we've got to figure out who was actually in charge cos it sure as heck wasn't Joe Biden." President Trump on Friday said the autopen is going to become "one of the great scandals of all time" and said he can't' believe that a competent Biden would have ever signed off on many of his executive orders, particularly in terms of the border. House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, launched an investigation earlier this month aimed at determining whether Biden, who was in declining health during the final months of his presidency, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the autopen. Comer said this week he was "open" to dragging Biden before the House to answer questions about the matter if need be. Last week, Comer sent out letters to five of the former president's closest confidants, including his former doctor in the White House, seeking further answers about Biden's cognitive health while in office. All five have made contact with the Oversight Committee, but Comer has threatened subpoena power if they refuse to testify. Hawley, meanwhile, also railed against left-wing media for failing to press the president or his office on instances of physical and mental lapses Biden showed while in public. The news comes as a new book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson details the length at which those closest to Biden apparently went to cover up his limitations while in office. "The press has a huge role in this… They're supposed to report the truth," Hawley said. "It's what you do every night. It is not what the liberal media did though. They sold this country out for years and they did it for power and they need to be held accountable as well."
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jake Tapper Puts Blame for Biden's Downfall Squarely Back on Biden
Jake Tapper, CNN anchor and co-author of the new book Original Sin, detailing the alleged 'cover-up' of the true depths of Joe Biden's cognitive decline, has told Bill Maher that the former president should share some of the blame for his own downfall. 'Who do we blame?' Maher asked on Friday's episode of Real Time With Bill Maher. Maher joked that the president's wife, Dr. Jill Biden, is 'getting the Yoko treatment,' taking the blame when it is perhaps undeserved. 'Yes, I think it was Jill Biden,' Tapper agreed. 'I also think it's Hunter Biden. I also think President Biden has some agency here, too. We're not saying it was Weekend at Bernie's,' Tapper explained. The reference to the 1989 slapstick comedy, in which a pair of insurance brokers puppeteer the corpse of their boss in order to enjoy the perks of his Hamptons beach house, drew laughs from the audience. Tapper doubled down, clarifying that it wasn't like the film. 'He had moments where he was non-functioning but he understood what was going on. We saw him earlier today: He can speak and talk. If he was here right now, he could talk for 10 to 15 minutes, he'd be fine.' Tapper did go on to explain that it was a concerted effort to conceal the president's health issues from the public and the media, as there were fears that unless he ran against Trump in the 2024 election, the Democrats would lose. 'There was a period in 2023-2024 where Democratic lawmakers barely saw the president,' Tapper noted, saying that even senior party officials and White House administration staff had been kept in the dark. Ultimately, as Biden's health issues became too painful to ignore, the president was swapped out for his vice president, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election—a move that did not reverse Democrats' fortunes. Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), joining Tapper on the show, agreed with his assessment that an 'omerta' was in place amongst the 'inner circle' not to speak openly about the realities of the president's health. 'Donald Trump, Democrats perceived him to be an existential threat to the world and only Joe Biden had ever beaten Trump,' Tapper said. 'Therefore, he had to be the nominee again and any word that deviated from that was helping Trump,' Tapper explained, before concluding: 'That's how the Biden people sold it to themselves.'
Fast Company
a day ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Want to lower your dementia risk? Start by stressing less
The probability of any American having dementia in their lifetime may be far greater than previously thought. For instance, a 2025 study that tracked a large sample of American adults across more than three decades found that their average likelihood of developing dementia between ages 55 to 95 was 42%, and that figure was even higher among women, Black adults and those with genetic risk. Now, a great deal of attention is being paid to how to stave off cognitive decline in the aging American population. But what is often missing from this conversation is the role that chronic stress can play in how well people age from a cognitive standpoint, as well as everybody's risk for dementia. We are professors at Penn State in the Center for Healthy Aging, with expertise in health psychology and neuropsychology. We study the pathways by which chronic psychological stress influences the risk of dementia and how it influences the ability to stay healthy as people age. Recent research shows that Americans who are currently middle-aged or older report experiencing more frequent stressful events than previous generations. A key driver behind this increase appears to be rising economic and job insecurity, especially in the wake of the 2007-2009 Great Recession and ongoing shifts in the labor market. Many people stay in the workforce longer due to financial necessity, as Americans are living longer and face . Therefore, it may be more important than ever to understand the pathways by which stress influences cognitive aging. Social isolation and stress Although everyone experiences some stress in daily life, some people experience stress that is more intense, persistent or prolonged. It is this relatively chronic stress that is most consistently linked with poorer health. In a recent review paper, our team summarized how chronic stress is a hidden but powerful factor underlying cognitive aging, or the speed at which your cognitive performance slows down with age. It is hard to overstate the impact of stress on your cognitive health as you age. This is in part because your psychological, behavioral and biological responses to everyday stressful events are closely intertwined, and each can amplify and interact with the other. For instance, living alone can be stressful— particularly for older adults —and being isolated makes it more difficult to live a healthy lifestyle, as well as to detect and get help for signs of cognitive decline. Moreover, stressful experiences—and your reactions to them—can make it harder to sleep well and to engage in other healthy behaviors, like getting enough exercise and maintaining a healthy diet. In turn, insufficient sleep and a lack of physical activity can make it harder to cope with stressful experiences. Stress is often missing from dementia prevention efforts A robust body of research highlights the importance of at least 14 different factors that relate to your risk of Alzheimer's disease, a common and devastating form of dementia and other forms of dementia. Although some of these factors may be outside of your control, such as diabetes or depression, many of these factors involve things that people do, such as physical activity, healthy eating and social engagement. What is less well-recognized is that chronic stress is intimately interwoven with all of these factors that relate to dementia risk. Our work and research by others that we reviewed in our recent paper demonstrate that chronic stress can affect brain function and physiology, influence mood and make it harder to maintain healthy habits. Yet, dementia prevention efforts rarely address stress. Avoiding stressful events and difficult life circumstances is typically not an option. Where and how you live and work plays a major role in how much stress you experience. For example, people with lower incomes, less education or those living in disadvantaged neighborhoods often face more frequent stress and have fewer forms of support—such as nearby clinics, access to healthy food, reliable transportation or safe places to exercise or socialize—to help them manage the challenges of aging As shown in recent work on brain health in rural and underserved communities, these conditions can shape whether people have the chance to stay healthy as they age. Over time, the effects of stress tend to build up, wearing down the body's systems and shaping long-term emotional and social habits. Lifestyle changes to manage stress and lessen dementia risk The good news is that there are multiple things that can be done to slow or prevent dementia, and our review suggests that these can be enhanced if the role of stress is better understood. Whether you are a young, midlife or an older adult, it is not too early or too late to address the implications of stress on brain health and aging. Here are a few ways you can take direct actions to help manage your level of stress: Follow lifestyle behaviors that can improve healthy aging. These include: following a healthy diet, engaging in physical activity and getting enough sleep. Even small changes in these domains can make a big difference. Prioritize your mental health and well-being to the extent you can. Things as simple as talking about your worries, asking for support from friends and family and going outside regularly can be immensely valuable. If your doctor says that you or someone you care about should follow a new health care regimen, or suggests there are signs of cognitive impairment, ask them what support or advice they have for managing related stress. If you or a loved one feel socially isolated, consider how small shifts could make a difference. For instance, research suggests that adding just one extra interaction a day —even if it's a text message or a brief phone call —can be helpful, and that even interactions with people you don't know well, such as at a coffee shop or doctor's office, can have meaningful benefits. Walkable neighborhoods, lifelong learning A 2025 study identified stress as one of 17 overlapping factors that affect the odds of developing any brain disease, including stroke, late-life depression and dementia. This work suggests that addressing stress and overlapping issues such as loneliness may have additional health benefits as well. However, not all individuals or families are able to make big changes on their own. Research suggests that community-level and workplace interventions can reduce the risk of dementia. For example, safe and walkable neighborhoods and opportunities for social connection and lifelong learning—such as through community classes and events—have the potential to reduce stress and promote brain health. Importantly, researchers have estimated that even a modest delay in disease onset of Alzheimer's would save hundreds of thousands of dollars for every American affected. Thus, providing incentives to companies who offer stress management resources could ultimately save money as well as help people age more healthfully. In addition, stress related to the stigma around mental health and aging can discourage people from seeking support that would benefit them. Even just thinking about your risk of dementia can be stressful in itself. Things can be done about this, too. For instance, normalizing the use of hearing aids and integrating reports of perceived memory and mental health issues into routine primary care and workplace wellness programs could encourage people to engage with preventive services earlier. Although research on potential biomedical treatments is ongoing and important, there is currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease. However, if interventions aimed at reducing stress were prioritized in guidelines for dementia prevention, the benefits could be far-reaching, resulting in both delayed disease onset and improved quality of life for millions of people.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Tapper's new book alleges Biden health cover-up 'worse than watergate'
CNN 's Jake Tapper admitted that the cover-up of Joe Biden's cognitive decline in the White House may have been 'worse than Watergate.' Tapper compared Biden's White House deception to President Richard Nixon and one of the greatest scandals in political history during an interview with Piers Morgan about his campaign tell-all Original Sin. 'This is an entirely separate scandal. Maybe even worse … maybe even worse,' Tapper ultimately admitted. 'It is without question – and maybe even worse than Watergate in some ways because Richard Nixon was in control of his faculties when he was not drinking.' Tapper's new book delves into the elaborate and painstaking efforts taken by Biden's inner circle to hide the true extent of the his health problems. Morgan challenged Tapper by asking him to justify his written conclusion that the 'hiding and cover-up of his deterioration is not Watergate.' That's when the CNN anchor actually admitted that he got it wrong. In fact, he told Morgan it 'may be worse' than the 1972 scandal, in which the Nixon administration attempted to cover up a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Nixon was forced to resign and 'Watergate' is now synonymous with political corruption, becoming somewhat of a benchmark through which subsequent administrations are judged. Tapper went on to try to clarify the quote Morgan referenced in the book, which concluded: 'Joe Biden is not Richard Nixon (pictured), and the hiding and cover-up of his deterioration is not Watergate.' Morgan had argued: 'I am not entirely sure I agree, Jake, with that conclusion.' But Tapper said the only reason they included the caveat in the book was because they had spoken with a Watergate investigator who discussed 'how powerful the presidency is and how presidents get surrounded by people who have a vested interest in keeping that president propped up.' Tapper in particular has faced enormous backlash for his reporting in the book, with critics arguing he was part of the so-called 'cover-up' he is now trying to expose. But he maintains he trusted Biden and his aides and took them at their word when they assured him that all was well. Tapper in particular has faced enormous backlash for his reporting in the book, with critics arguing he was part of the so-called 'cover-up' he is now trying to expose. The turning point for him was the disastrous debate between Biden and Trump in June 2024, which he and fellow CNN star Dana Bash moderated. The duo had iPads which they used to communicate with their production team throughout the debate. Early on, Tapper sent a message to his crew backstage. He didn't know which staff were working, so he 'tried to keep it clean.' 'I wrote 'holy smokes,' he told Megyn Kelly. 'I wanted to write 'holy [expletive].' Around the same time, Bash slid him a piece of paper, with her own message on it. It read: 'He just lost the election.' Kelly was among the leading voices critical of Tapper's rol e in the cover-up, telling him: 'There is a way of pressing a man like that on the actual infirmities to bring it home to him and to the audience and you didn't do it.' After further criticism of a now-infamous 2020 exchange between Tapper and Lara Trump, during which Tapper shamed her for mentioning Biden's 'cognitive decline', Tapper accepted fault for his past reporting. 'Knowing what I know now, obviously I feel tremendous humility about my coverage,' Tapper told Kelly, while also admitting that 'conservative media was correct' in how it handled the story. 'There should be a lot of soul-searching not just among me but among the legacy media to begin with - all of us - for how this was covered or not covered sufficiently,' he said. 'I wish I could do differently.' Following the car-crash debate, Biden ultimately dropped out of the race and endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. But his antics following that decision continued to infuriate both Harris and fellow Democrats. During a 9/11 commemoration event, he was pictured wearing a MAGA hat at the behest of a member of the crowd, jovially signing the cap and laughing with his audience. Then, whispers from his camp revealed he genuinely believed he could have defeated Trump. 'What is he doing?' Harris asked her team, according to the book. 'This is completely unhelpful. And so unnecessary.' In October, Biden told supporters 'we got to lock him up,' when talking about former President Donald Trump, at a time when Trump and his supporters were accusing Biden and Harris of 'lawfare' to remove him from the presidential race. Later that month, Biden also referred to President Trump's supporters as 'garbage,' which the campaign famously branded as an insult to working class Americans. While the book is brimming with startling revelations, the authors have been on a PR blitz trying to legitimize it amid concerns that they failed to report the truth whilst it was happening. Tapper even enlisted the expertise of crisis PR maven Risa Heller, who has represented the likes of convicted Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and Hollywood predator Harvey Weinstein. He said the PR guru has helped him with 'advice' as they make the book's 'rollout as smart as possible.' On Sunday, Thompson was asked by Fox News host Shannon Bream about an anecdote referenced in the book about advisors justifying 'undemocratic' actions in an effort to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House. Reading aloud from the book, Bream quoted an unnamed aide as saying: '[Biden] just had to win, and then he could disappear for four years. 'He'd only have to show proof of life every once in a while… His aides could pick up the slack.' Thompson revealed that the source 'went on to say that, when you're voting for a president, you're voting for the aides around him.' 'These aides were not even Senate-confirmed aides,' he said. 'These are White House aides, these were unelected people. 'And one of the things that really I think comes out in our reporting here is that if you believe - and I think a lot of these people do sincerely believe that Donald Trump was and is an existential threat to democracy - you can rationalize anything. 'Including sometimes doing undemocratic things, which I think is what this person is talking about.' And that revelation came on the back of a startling claim that a trio of senior political veterans who had known Biden for decades worked closely with his wife, Dr Jill Biden, and occasionally his troubled son, Hunter, to run the show. Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti and Bruce Reed were the core three decision-makers, the book claims, adding that former senior advisor to the president Annie Tomasini and former White House chief of staff Ron Klain were also 'at times' part of the group. 'Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board,' one source told the authors. 'In practice, Bruce Reed was the real domestic policy adviser, Mike Donilon was the actual political director, Steve Ricchetti controlled Legislative Affairs, and Klain controlled a bit of everything.' According to the book, both Jill and Hunter Biden were prominent and permanent fixtures within Biden's circle of trust. This is despite aides and insiders partially blaming Hunter for the president's rapid deterioration. 'To understand Joe Biden's deterioration, top aides told us, one has to know Hunter's struggles,' the book stated. While promoting his book, Tapper was asked about Hunter's role in the administration and influence over his father. Fueled by information garnered through interviews with more than 200 people for the book, Tapper answered: 'I think Hunter was driving the decision-making for the family in a way that people - he was almost like a chief of staff of the family. It's bizarre because I think he is provably demonstrably unethical, sleazy, and prone to horrible decisions,' Tapper added. 'After his brother died, he cheated on his wife with his brother's widow and then got her addicted to crack.' The recent revelation that Biden has been diagnosed with late-stage prostate cancer also sparked rampant conspiracy theories about whether medical professionals were aware of his illness while he was president. Biden's team have maintained he was not tested for prostate cancer while he was president, and that the diagnosis is recent. That reassurance has not stopped MAGA loyalists from demanding his long-term physician Kevin O'Connor be subpoenaed to answer questions about Biden's health. O'Connor repeatedly assured the American public during Biden's term that he was healthy and could have served another four years. Simultaneously, several of Biden's closest aides are facing pressure to reveal how much control they had over his autopen after Trump raised questions about who was really in charge during the Biden administration. According to the book, which is based on hundreds of interviews, 'access' to Biden diminished significantly during his White House term, as his staff allegedly walled him off, even from cabinet members. One cabinet secretary told the authors that he didn't brief the president directly in 2024 but only spoke to the president's aides. Even still, insiders maintained they were not aware of how dire the situation had become until it was too late, despite Biden's repeated gaffes and tumbles on the public stage. One of the most shocking incidents took place in September 2022 incident Biden called out for Republican Congresswoman Jackie Walorski at a White House event. 'Jackie, are you here? Where's Jackie,' he said scanning the audience. 'She was going to be here.' Walorski had been killed in a car crash in August and Biden and the First Lady had issued a statement extended condolences to her family at the time. Another standout moment for Tapper was when Biden did not recognize actor George Clooney at a 2024 fundraising event, along with the revelation that White House aides were considering placing the president in a wheelchair if he were reelected.
