Documentarian Michael Moore has a bone to pick with the people close to Joe Biden, going so far as to accuse those encouraging him to remain in the race for another term as president of “elder abuse” on the latest episode of his Rumble podcast.
Moore pulled no punches as he made the assertion during the episode: “If I have to be the only one to stand up for Joe Biden here to protect him from the cruelest form of elder abuse I've ever been forced to watch, well then that's what I’ll do,” he said.
“He was in epic distress [during the debate]. Every cognitive default in his mind seemed to be shutting down. If this had been somebody that you truly cared about, loved, embraced, what would you have done? Would you have seriously even let him go out on that stage?”
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The Oscar-winning filmmaker has been vocally critical of Biden in the past—especially in regards to the Israel-Hamas War, though concerns about the President’s age have taken precedence in his latest comments. “I've told you over a number of months since last October of my utter disappointment, seeing President Biden embracing Benjamin Netanyahu: funding him, arming him, and not ordering him to stop using our weapons and our money [to] stop the slaughter, stop the ethnic cleansing.”
He went on to describe Biden’s “broken promises” in regards to the war, which he said include saying that he'd secure a ceasefire or that he would ensure that Gazans received humanitarian aid. “I’ve just had my spirits deflated by this person I voted for,” he added before shifting focus to Biden’s age: “And then the debate happened.”
Stating that he was recording the episode just after Biden’s sit down with George Stephanopoulos, Moore said, “In spite of my criticisms of Biden and everything, I am very grateful for so many of the things that he's done in these last three and a half years—and yet tonight it’s like he still didn’t really have a clue as to what was going on.”
Moore doesn’t just blame Biden for that, however. He pointed the finger at Biden’s team of advisors, or anyone who has encouraged him to stay in the race despite what critics have seen as significant mental decline due to age. “It’s all about making sure he stays in the race and nothing about the risk to his own life he is facing as they push him, push him, push him to soldier onward,” Moore said.
“So I will say this, to protect him from an out of control party machine that is in a panic over what to do—for any of us to be silent now is exactly what the term elder abuse is meant to describe. Leave Mr. Biden alone.”
Moore said those encouraging Biden should: “Let him rest. Let him go home. He has done his job. Let him have his dignity.” After that, Moore said the next steps are obvious: VP Kamala Harris should take over as president and face Donald Trump in the upcoming election.
“She and only she inherits all the campaign funds in the Biden-Harris War Chest. Biden will urge all his Biden-Harris convention delegates to support her. She will now immediately become the incumbent president who will run on the incredible accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration,” he said.
He issued a call to action of sorts by the end, implicating anyone still supporting Biden’s run in November. “We become our own terrorists when we don't take the stands that we need to take, especially when it's uncomfortable, especially when maybe it's somebody we're grateful to or that we like.”
“No matter how we feel about a whole bunch of issues,” he added, “we must stop Donald Trump.”
