Isn't a sign of dementia being confused about when it is? Like the ONLY logical explanation I can think of for what he said was that in the time it took The Reporter to ask his question..Joe's mind wandered off back to 2014 (Holy shit was the 370 flight THAT LONG AGO?)
Now, I can't in good conscience recommend that anyone sit through an entire speech that Biden gives because it's a good way to lose your mind, especially if you're trying to transcribe it, but the one thing I've
definitely noticed is that he goes on some sort of political auto-pilot
a lot. Many of the phrases he'll spit out are clearly rehearsed and he's said them so many times throughout his life that they always come out with the exact same inflection and tempo, like "What in
God's name are we
doing?"
He injects a
ton of these things into his speeches and it comes off feeling like you're watching someone just list off a bunch of random, politically-charged quotes that have no bearing whatsoever to the conversation or the question. It's not even "canned, political speak" to try and dance around a question, it's like his brain is just pulling random phrases out of a hat and throwing them at the wall. It's like his brain still
knows what to say and how to be political, but it's not coherent enough to understand when these practiced phrases are even appropriate anymore, and he's doing it more and more frequently.
If they can manage to keep him on a script he's more-or-less
manageable as far as a dementia patient goes--provided that they remove the parts he's
not supposed to read-- But when he's off the script he's completely helpless. His brain can mostly manage reading, but it doesn't seem like it can stand on its own without breaking down into directionless gibberish. Just compare how he talks around the first half of the video with how he answers any of the questions at the end. He acts
completely different.
Anyways, 18:55 is another great part of that video. "The bottom-line Mister President:
Do your job. Get off your gaulk course and out of the sand bunker." And then he does this incredibly weird, grabby motion with his hands.