Everyone in the president’s orbit is being marched out to reassure the public of his impeccable cognitive abilities — everyone except the president himself, who refuses to sit for even a CBS softball Super Bowl interview. He rushed out the night the report was released only to prove Hur’s characterization of him, forgetting the name of the parish where he received Beau Biden’s rosary, and mixing up the presidents of Mexico and Egypt. When Biden appeared Tuesday, for the first time since that disastrous evening presser, he concluded his statement on Ukraine funding by saying, “God Bless America and may God protect our speaker,” confusing, I assume, House Speaker Mike Johnson with “troops,” which has always been Biden’s customary sign off.

The administration, with journalists in tow, is playing the Looney Tunes dancing frog act — that to them and only them, behind closed doors, away from cameras and the voting public, Biden is not the president we see regularly confuse world leaders, forget where to walk off a stage, lose concentration mid-sentence and refuse to hold live interviews or unscripted press conferences. They are telling 86 percent of the country (according to a recent ABC News poll on Biden’s fitness for a second term) not to believe their eyes and ears.