Right-wing conspiracists shared a clip showing CNN anchor Jake Tapper helping President Joe Biden pick up his notes during an interview, prompting claims that Mr Biden is protected by the mainstream media.
Steve Guest, an adviser for Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, tweeted a clip showing Mr Biden dropping his “cheat sheet” during an interview with Jake Tapper of CNN, who helped pick it up.
Republicans have been pushing the notion that Mr Biden, who turns 80 on 20 November, is too old to be the commander-in-chief.
Donald Trump Jr chose to go after Mr Tapper.
“And Fake Tapper is such a hack that instead of asking Biden why he has note cards or what’s in them, he immediately hands them right back over to him with no questions asked. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that Tapper is a journalist, he’s a lifelong Dem activist,” he tweeted.
Another Twitter user said it was a “perfect example of how the mainstream media protects Biden”.
“Look at the bright side: he’s not yet demented enough that he can’t read,” another account holder added. “Which means that he’s still smarter than Kamala but dumber than the unmoving goldfish floating on the surface of your fishbowl.”
Luis Moreno, a former US ambassador, pushed back on the criticism, saying that “any public figure worth his salt, uses ‘talking points.’ I’ve prepared them, I’ve used them. It’s just good prep, he’s not reading off them or using a teleprompter. Oh, and they’re not written block letters with a Sharpie. Can’t believe that someone has to say this”.
“The lights are on, but nobody is home,” one Twitter user said.
“If he has a cheat sheet, he knows what the questions are. Probably why @jaketapper jumped to pick it up. Jake is a fraud,” another account holder added.
“So far this week the GOP’s biggest ‘gotchas’ against President Biden is that he is a caring, compassionate man that loves his son and that he comes prepared to interviews,” a third Twitter user pushed back.
“He knows the questions. The note cards answers the questions. All he needs to do is keep them in order. He drops the cards. Tapper picks them up. Media is an enabler for the people controlling the dementia patient!” Michael Moskaitis suggested.
Many criticised Mr Trump Jr by noting that his father, former President Donald Trump, had frequently used notes during his time in the White House.
“Your dad had the dumbest cheat sheet of all time and it was fine! People are allowed to have notes. How can anyone possibly be anti-notes,” NBC News Producer Manny Fidel wrote.
John Ladarola of The Young Turks added that “Jr here knows his dad used sheets of paper covered with sharpie scribbles to help guide him through difficult concepts like ‘express empathy to mass shooting survivors’ but he’s such a shameless hack he has to pretend Joe Biden invented note cards”.
“Republicans are finding it hard to understand why someone would want to stay organized and prepared instead of just rambling off whatever comes to the top of their head in the moment. I guess they prefer listening to Trump’s run-on sentences,” one Twitter user said.
