Joe Biden Using Notecards During Border Visit Raises Eyebrows

Video of President Biden using notecards during his visit to the U.S.-Mexican border near Brownsville, Texas, on Thursday has been shared on social media amidst ongoing concern over whether the 81-year-old is fit for a second White House term.

In footage posted on X, formerly Twitter, by Fox News national correspondent Griff Jenkins, Biden can be seen holding and at one point appearing to read notecards while listening to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.

Jenkins wrote: "Pres Biden's use of notecards during his operational briefing at the border is noticeable - an ICE ERO [Enforcement and Removal Operations] official is explaining the challenges of sanctuary jurisdictions as he focuses on the next prepared question for an HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] official."

It comes just days after Axios reported Biden was using notecards to answer pre-screened questions on policy at closed-door fundraising events raising concerns among some donors.

Newsweek has contacted the White House press office for comment by email.

Biden's trip to the southern border on Thursday coincided with a rival visit from Donald Trump, by some margin frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, who was slapped down by a local mayor after claiming migrants were coming from prisons, insane asylums and are terrorists.

During his visit, Biden urged congressional Republicans to vote through a bipartisan Senate package unveiled earlier this month aimed at tightening border security and providing additional assistance to U.S. allies such as Ukraine. The package was rejected by GOP hardliners including House Speaker Mike Johnson who claimed it would "incentivize illegal immigration" and said there was "no way" House Republicans would vote for it.

On Wednesday, Biden's annual health summary was released with Kevin O'Conner, his physician, concluding he is "a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency."

However, a Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll conducted for Newsweek found 61 percent of the 1,500 eligible voters surveyed from February 18-19 believe Biden is "too old to seek a second term as president," against only 18 percent who actively disagree.

Among voters who backed Biden in 2020, the survey found 44 percent believe the president is too old to run for a second term, with 34 percent disagreeing and 21 percent saying they "neither agree nor disagree."

The survey also found concerns about 77-year-old Trump running for a second term, though they weren't as extensive as for Biden. Among the public as a whole 40 percent said the Republican frontrunner is too old to stand for the White House again in November with 35 percent actively disagreeing.

Concern about Biden's mental faculties intensified earlier this month when Special Counsel Robert Hur, a Trump appointee, published a report into his handling of classified materials after his time as Barack Obama's vice president.

Hur concluded the president shouldn't face prosecution noting he'd been cooperative and stating that "at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

Both Biden and Trump have committed a number of gaffs in recent weeks, with the president appearing to confuse Francois Mitterrand, a former French president who died in 1996, with current office holder Emmanuel Macron. Separately, Trump claimed "Israel became the capital" of Israel due to his actions, in an apparent attempt to reference his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017.

Trump is facing criminal charges over his alleged mishandling of classified documents along with allegations he orchestrated the payment of hush money to a former adult film actress and allegedly broke the law attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election result both nationwide and in the state of Georgia specifically. He has pled not guilty to all counts and insists the accusations the allegations against him are politically motivated.