I’ve been thinking a lot about the so-called Biden coverup. The word doesn’t really fit.

A real coverup involves hiding the truth from the public. Think of Watergate, or the Pentagon Papers, or Iran-Contra. What all of those had in common was that the public didn’t know what was going on. The concealment was deliberate and strategic.

But in the case of Biden, Americans knew. Anyone who was watching could see the truth. The President appeared infirm and confused in his public appearances and even in his rare Oval Office addresses. Remember when he asked for more support for Israel and Ukraine? He was reading from a teleprompter, and even then, he struggled to get through the statement.

If he had been alert and confident, he could have just given an interview, proved everyone wrong. But he never did; and we knew why he never did: because he could not. 

Furthermore, this was not the case of someone who seemed debilitated in public, but who was sharp as a tack in private. The public could see that something had gone wrong in his decision-making as well.  As Alon Preiss wrote in these pages, Biden’s presidency was marked by “the kind of bad decision[s] that someone inexperienced or suffering cognitive decline would make.” 

And those of us willing to talk about it were condemned for it, or at the very best, urged to shut up about it.

So this wasn’t a coverup. It was something else—something arguably more troubling. The information wasn’t hidden; it was just declared off-limits. It was something more insidious than a coverup: a political taboo. The truth was visible — Biden’s frailty, his struggle in public appearances — but acknowledging it became unacceptable. Everyone could see it, but progressives were not supposed to say it out loud. It was like something out of a totalitarian country: a known truth that lived just beneath the surface of public discourse, enforced not by secret police, but by peer pressure, career risk and ideological loyalty. You could lose friends. You could lose work. You could be cast out for acknowledging a truth we all could see.

Among many progressive Biden supporters, the argument wasn’t that Americans shouldn’t know, it was that we shouldn’t talk about it. I heard versions of this time and again: “I’d vote for a rotting corpse over Donald Trump,” or “Biden will be surrounded by excellent advisers, so it doesn’t matter if he’s not all there.” Never mind that those excellent advisers had not prevented the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, the administrations disastrous handling of Gaza, or even Biden’s disastrous decision to run for reelection. We should shut up about Biden’t competence. Biden’s competence was beside the point.

Ezra Klein, a prominent liberal commentator for The New York Times, was among the first mainstream voices to question Biden’s fitness for reelection. Klein’s stance drew criticism from Democrats, who viewed his suggestions as destabilizing during a critical election period. Bad; but not untrue. 

Michelle Goldberg, also of The New York Times, acknowledged that many Democrats, including herself, had been in denial about Biden’s decline. Goldberg described the party’s collective avoidance as a form of “groupthink,” where loyalty and fear of political repercussions suppressed open discussion. 

This kind of pressure hit at the highest levels, but also at the lowest levels. (Me.)

On a Facebook thread limited to “close friends,” I once raised concerns about Biden’s cognitive health. Someone I’ve known since high school responded, “fuck off.” He didn’t dispute my observation—he just scolded me for “providing a forum” for the idea. Never mind that the “forum” I provided was about as influential as my living room. 

After I published a few articles, written by other journalists, questioning Biden’s fitness for office, an editor I’d worked with in the 1990s — one of my most important mentors — cut ties with me completely. 

“The negativity is not helping” he wrote to me. “Sorry, I’m not interested in discussing it further. Hopefully you’ll figure it out.”

I responded, “Because I want a different candidate than Biden, you’ve decided to never speak to me again? That’s a crappy way to treat someone you’ve known for 35 years.” 

His reply? “Looks like I made the right decision.” 

And with that, it was all over. 

The issue was never about concealing the truth from the American people. It was about enforcing silence around a truth we all could see. 

That’s not a coverup. That’s worse.

^^^

Steven S. Drachman is a novelist and journalist.

Image: Kalyee Srithnam.