Letters to the Editor: Don’t blame the public for not knowing how bad President Biden’s health had gotten

To the editor: Contributing writer Matt K. Lewis claims we’re all to blame, as if we knew Joe Biden couldn’t carry out his duties as president, adding that “the scandal is how few people cared” (“We all saw Biden’s decline in real time. The scandal is how few people cared,” May 23)

That’s a lazy and incorrect generalization. We didn’t know how bad Biden’s decline was. It took a nationally broadcast debate and an incident involving a person with the name recognition of George Clooney to break through. Biden, we’d been told, had a lifelong speech impediment that challenged his fluency. Until the debate, this seemed to explain so much.

I also reject that we didn’t care. Democrats cared a lot. But it was also easy to think nothing was wrong considering how smoothly everything seemed to operate before President Trump. Kamala Harris was the only opposing candidate we were offered. She’s smart but never my vision of a strong leader. I voted against her opponent, not for her.

And then, Democratic leadership left easy issues for Republicans to win on. Now we, the public, have to wait to vote for our own power again. The midterms can’t come soon enough.

Brenda ReVelle, Orange

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To the editor: Enough already. This and all the continuous articles about former President Biden’s mental condition are an unwelcome distraction. First, I do not care about who knew what when. It’s irrelevant to today’s news. I do have sympathy for Biden’s health concerns and wish him the best. The infatuation with finding out who knew what reeks of false equivalence. If you want to talk about mental conditions, then talk about the present occupant of the White House who is completely detached from reality.

Despite all the drivel about Biden, remember that he performed more than admirably while in the White House, no matter what his mental condition was.

Jay Coffman, San Diego