Biden forgot names of longtime aides Jake Sullivan, Kate Bedingfield halfway through his term, new book says

Joe Biden forgot the names of lawmakers, foreign dignitaries and even longtime aides as early as halfway into his term, according to a tell-all tome about the oldest-ever president’s failed 2024 re-election bid set for release next week.The former vice president had displayed signs of mental slippage earlier during his 2020 campaign for the White House — but the decline accelerated over the course of his term, journalists Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper write in their new book “Original Sin,” set to be published May 20.In December 2022, Biden couldn’t even recall his former top national security aide and communications director from his vice presidency — which had ended less than six years before.“Steve,” he beckoned to his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, after announcing the US had secured the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from a Russian prison in exchange for the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout.“Steve,” the president asked again, trying to call him into an Oval Office meeting and referring at the same time to his former and current spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield as merely “Press.”Sullivan first came to work for Biden in 2013, while Bedingfield started with the vice president in 2015.Biden also badly bungled the basketball star’s wife’s name at the White House.“These past few months have been hell for Brittney and for Charlee and her entire family and all her teammates back home,” he said, mangling Griner’s wife’s name, Cherelle.Months earlier, in an incident curiously absent from the book, Biden had mistakenly called out for the late Rep.Jackie Walorski to identify herself at a bipartisan event in Washington, DC — a month after the Indiana Republican died in a car crash.“I want to thank all of you here, including bipartisan elected officials like Representative [Jim] McGovern, Senator [Mike] Braun, Senator [Cory] Booker, Representative Jackie — are you here? Where’s Jackie? — I think she was going t...