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Meghan McCain, daughter of late Arizona Senator John McCain, has compared watching Joe Biden’s debate performance to her father’s “cognitive decline” during his battle with terminal brain cancer.
“It sounds a little ridiculous but my dad died of brain cancer, I know what cognitive decline looks like in one way or another. I think any caregiver for an aging parent knows that,” McCain said on her podcast, Citizen McCain, this week.
McCain said that she was struck by the president’s weak performance against Republican rival Donald Trump, where he struggled to answer questions and his voice appeared frail.
She said that she watched the debate while folding laundry and “dropped the clothes on the floor” when Biden misspoke about Medicare.
“And to me, I felt saddened and uncomfortable and then very scared,” the Republican commentator said.
McCain has posted consistently on X that she believes Biden should step down or the Democratic Party will risk losing to Trump.
“Joe Biden can step aside for another candidate or lose in historic numbers in a few months - but one way or another he will not be President soon and this is something his family should start coming to terms with since they all seem to be living in a severe level of delusion,” she posted last week.
“Super weird democrats would rather lose massively to Trump than admit Biden has a problem,” she wrote in another post.
Biden’s debate performance in Atlanta last month has shaken confidence in his political future among voters and a growing number of Democratic lawmakers. His subsequent interviews and press conference on Thursday night have done little to allay those fears.
McCain wrote earlier this week, begging the Biden family to, “stop making us watch Biden humiliate himself.”
The White House has denied allegations that Biden has a degenerative brain disease and pointed to the president’s physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor’s neurological assessment of the 81-year-old last year. Dr O’Connor reported that there were “no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder”.
John McCain and Biden were close friends and allies throughout their political careers, working together on legislation despite their ideological differences,
When John McCain was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2017, Biden joined Meghan McCain on the TV show, The View, which she co-hosted at the time, to show his support for her and the McCain family.
After John McCain’s death in 2018, Biden delivered a moving eulogy at his funeral. “My name is Joe Biden. I’m a Democrat. And I loved John McCain,” he said.
