President Joe Biden’s recent debate performance intensified doubts about his faculties and, especially among Democrats, electability. But even if the president overcomes those doubts to secure a second term, Americans have cause to be deeply skeptical of the judgment of those around him. And if there are no “adults in the room” willing to admit the president’s obvious current infirmities, why should the public expect any better in a second term when those deficits will inevitably worsen?

Less than four years ago, debate moderator and CNN anchor Dana Bash declared that “the adults are back in the room” in describing Biden’s first executive actions in January 2021. Bash’s declaration amplified the Biden campaign’s promise of a return to normalcy after the turbulent Trump years. But what Americans witnessed at the June 27 debate was far from normal, including Biden confusingly proclaiming that “we finally beat Medicare”—whatever that meant.

Even some of the president’s more coherent answers reflected political malpractice. Bash offered the night’s most predictable question, asking Biden to address voter concerns about his “capability to handle the toughest job in the world well into your 80s.” That recalled a similar question posed in 1984 to Ronald Reagan, whose humorous response (“I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience”) made even opponent Walter Mondale laugh and secured Reagan’s reelection. In contrast, Biden’s response noted that he once “was the second-youngest person ever elected to the United States Senate. And now I’m the oldest.” Setting aside that Biden is no longer in the Senate, after a week of preparation, that’s the best he and his advisers could do? That is, in a year when experts see “global anger with elected leaders,” to remind voters concerned about his age that he has been a fixture in Washington politics for over five decades?

Even before the debate, Biden aides pushed back feverishly against reports like those in the Wall Street Journal that the president has shown “signs of slipping.” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriquez responded last month by claiming that “he is, you know, just one of the strongest leaders.” Forty-something Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre a week later laughably seconded that she “can’t keep up with” the 81-year-old president.

In the wake of the debate, the president and his aides unconvincingly blamed a cold and lack of sleep following international travel for his halting performance. Campaign officials reserved special vitriol for insider critics, calling them “bedwetters.” That’s hardly the language of adults, even if sadly typical of contemporary politics. The president’s family later blamed his debate prep, which we have since learned included ample time for afternoon naps. Meanwhile, the media has finally caught on to what former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson has described as the White House’s “massive cover-up of the degree of the President’s feebleness and his serious physical decline.”

Even if the president and those in the room with him continue to deny the obvious, everyday Americans recognize what they saw because they often have witnessed the same firsthand. Millions have helped aging parents and grandparents navigate the difficult transition to old age. They know there comes time for “the talk” about taking away the car keys, or helping a parent leave the family home when it is no longer safe for them to live alone. Those are hard, but important, decisions that adults make for the safety of aging loved ones and the community around them. But that is apparently too much to expect of those around this president, including family and staff who have considerable interests vested in his remaining in power.

Like other politicians, President Biden is a proud man, who longtime observers know is also prone to doublespeak and sometimes outright deception. As anyone who has helped an aging loved one knows, those sorts of deficits worsen, not improve, with age, and seniors are often the last to admit their decline. That only raises the bar of responsibility for those around the president to tell Americans the truth about his condition. But those adults don’t appear to be in the room. 

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