Leaders of America’s Western allies have reportedly become increasingly concerned by President Joe Biden’s demeanor and doddering behavior after the Group of 7 (G7) summit last week.
The Sun reported that multiple diplomatic sources spoke to them about Biden’s behavior, at times alleging that he was “losing focus” at the G7 summit in Italy, where the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war played a major focus.
Public observers and commentators have repeatedly questioned the 81-year-old Biden’s mental acuity and suggested he is in cognitive decline, as the U.S. president has been making odd gestures and forgetting or mixing up names and details in public speeches. One source for the Sun said the behavior he saw out of Biden at the G7 summit is “the worst he has ever been.”
Members of multiple non-U.S. delegations at the G7 summit told the Sun that Biden’s behavior during the summit was “embarrassing.”
At one point during the summit, as the G7 leaders watched a parachute demonstration, Biden began to wander away from the group.
The footage of Biden wandering away from the group led to some conservative publications and commentators questioning the president’s behavior.
The Washington Post published an article arguing the framing of certain clips of the parachute event were dishonest, and that Biden was simply wandering away to talk to a parachutist before other members of the G7 group pulled him back into their huddle.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also defended Biden’s behavior at the parachute demonstration in remarks to The Telegraph. The British prime minister said Biden had only wandered away from the group because he “was being very polite” trying to greet and shake hands with each of the parachutists. Sunak said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pulled Biden back to be with the rest of the G7 group and explained to the U.S. president that the parachute team would eventually come to them to exchange pleasantries.
RNC Research, a Republican political account on the X social media platform, argued even with these defenses of Biden’s actions, the footage from the event showed that the Democratic U.S. president “is cooked.”
