President Joe Biden Had '15-20' Cognitive Decline Episodes in the Past Year, Journalist Reveals: Debate Was Not 'a One-Off'

After President Joe Biden sparked concerns at the 2024 debate against Donald Trump, it looks like things are not great behind the scenes, according to journalist Carl Bernstein.

"These are people, several of them, who are very close to President Biden, who love him, have supported him – among them are some people who have raised a lot of money for him – and they are adamant that what we saw the other night, the Joe Biden we saw, is not a one-off. That there have been 15, 20 occasions in the last year-and-a-half when the president has appeared somewhat as he did in that horror show that we witnessed, and what’s so significant is the people that this is coming from and also how many people around the president are aware of such incidents, including some reporters, incidentally, who witness some of them," Bernstein said during an appearance on Anderson Cooper 360 on Monday, July 1, just a few days after the debate took place.

These people who have supported him, loved him, campaigned for him, see him often say that in the last six months particularly, there has been a marked incidents of cognitive decline and physical infirmity," he added.

Bernstein claimed the insiders spoke to former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, who supervised Biden's debate prep, about the president's "problem," but were "pushed back repeatedly" when it was brought up.

“There have been numerous instances where the president has lost his train of thought [and] can’t pick it up again,” Bernstein claimed. “There was a fundraiser in which he started at the podium, and then he became very stiff, according to the people there, as if it were almost a kind of rigor mortis set in.”

Since Biden became "very stiff," a chair "had to be brought for him" in order for him to finish the event.

As OK! previously reported, during the debate, Biden, 81, appeared to lose his train of thought several times, leading people to believe he's unfit for office.

However, he declared he won't be leaving the race anytime soon.

“I think we did well,” Biden said post-event.

“No. It’s hard to debate a liar. The New York Times pointed out he lied 26 times,” he said, noting he had a sore throat.

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Even VP Kamala Harris had a hard time defending the commander-in-chief.

“Yes, it was a slow start, but it was a strong finish,” Harris, 59, said while talking to CNN's Anderson Cooper, adding that “what became very clear through the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people on substance, on policy, on performance. Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong.”