This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

It was only a few months ago that Reason described Joe Biden's spending spree as president as "unprecedented."

It was in just eight months that Biden pushed the national debt from $30 trillion to $31 trillion, spending that much more than the government took in.

His spending totaled $3.37 trillion in just two years, including the $1.8 trillion "American Rescue Plan," the $785 billion "Infrastructure" spending, the $278 billion "Toxics" plan, the $255 billion CHIPS Act, and such.

And he's wanting to spend trillions more, handing out cancelation notices for student debt – a fight that is before the Supreme Court now.

So at some point the bill comes due, and the Hill is reporting that's now, with Biden's new budget proposing new taxes "he says will reduce the deficit by $2 trillion over the next decade."

He is claiming the taxes will be paid by "the wealthy and big corporations."

Already, there's a plan for a raise in the Medicare surtax on earned and unearned income above $400,000 from 3.8 percent to 5 percent.

Biden also wants those worth more than $100 million to pay a 20 percent tax on income and the unrealized gains of liquid assets such as stocks.

Biden also wants to quadruple the stock buyback tax and increase the top marginal income tax to 39.6%.

In a related issue, there's no shortage of ideas in the Biden administration on how to spend even more.

The Washington Times reports Biden is calling for a 5.2% pay hike for all federal employees. That would be on top of the 4.6% hike from his executive order in December.

That would be the largest pay increase for roughly 2 million federal workers since President Jimmy Carter proposed a 9.1% increase in 1980.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Only a few weeks ago, city officials in Port Wentworth, Ga., attacked one of their police officers for posting online his perspective on biblical marriage.

Since then, the police chief has left, and the city has been warned by a legal team that its actions violated the First Amendment.

Now, more than 30,000 people have signed a petition insisting that the city apologizes to Jacob Kersey for its violation of the Constitution.

The Washington Stand, a publication of the Family Research Council, is reporting the "massive show of public support" for Kersey includes petitions from the nearly 31,000 people who signed them for delivery to city officials.

"The 19-year-old was pulled from duty and pressured to resign his position in January over a Facebook post he wrote on his personal account upholding a biblical view of marriage," the report noted.

And now former Congressman Jody Hice, now senior advisor to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Bishop Garland Hunt of The Father’s House, and former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran will join Georgia pastors in delivering the petitions in support of Kersey.

It got started in January when Kersey was summoned by his superiors and told he could be dismissed unless he removed a post he wrote on his personal social media that stated, "God designed marriage. Marriage refers to Christ and the church. That’s why there’s no such thing as homosexual marriage."

He declined and was placed on administrative leave over his religious faith.

He eventually was reinstated, under threats, and ultimately walked away from the biases in the department.

"I’m just really humbled," Kersey told The Washington Stand. "The fact that God, in his divine plan, saw it fit to use me as a vessel in this, to stand for religious liberty and to stand for biblical truth. The fact that over 30,000 Americans would take the time to sign and stand with me in both of those things is comforting, and I know there’s many more Americans out there who would agree with all of us."

He pointed out that God is using such situations to "sound the alarm on the attack on religious liberty."

He continued, "Is it important to stand for biblical truth and religious liberty or is it important for them to fill the pews? I think that’s really where we’re at right now here in the state of Georgia, and I think a lot of pastors, not just here but across the nation, are being challenged with that as well. What is important to them? I think I’ve seen God at work in both ways. He’s encouraged his people, he’s challenged his people, and I think he is empowering his people to be bold and stand for the truth in love."

WND reported earlier when attorneys for Kersey warned the city in a letter it was "blatantly" discriminating against the Christian.

"It is a blatant violation of state and federal civil rights laws to discriminate against someone for expressing their religious beliefs," said Stephanie Taub, of First Liberty. "The city owes Jacob a public apology. And it needs to adopt policies that recognize the free speech and free exercise rights of its employees. Forcing Jacob to choose to either censor his private religious speech or remain employed as a police officer is simply unconstitutional."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The fact that security video footage of events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, just now is being released – it had been concealed from the public and criminal case defendants for years by Democrats – is disrupting the processing of those cases in the judicial system.

A report from the Epoch Times explains, "A growing number of people charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol are requesting trial delays so they can review newly disclosed footage."

The report cited Shane Jenkins, who filed a motion through a lawyer to delay the trial because of the disclosure of some 41,000 hours of security footage. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to give Tucker Carlson access to those tapes.

His lawyer, Dennis Boyle, told the court, "Mr. Jenkins requests that his trial currently set to begin on March 21, 2023, be moved so defense counsel can review the additional discovery."

The issue has turned into a huge one – politically and otherwise.

The first series of videos released on Monday showed that the "QAnon Shaman," Jake Chansley, who was arrested and sentenced to four years in jail for being in the Capitol that day, actually was escorted through the Capitol, and let into the Senate chamber, by security officers.

Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley, who has appeared in front of Congress to testify on such issues, said the video evidence obviously raises new questions.

"The videotapes aired on the Tucker Carlson Show this week shows Chansley being escorted by officers through the Capitol. Two officers appear to not only guide him to the floor but actually appear to be trying to open locked doors for him. At one point, Chanseley is shown walking unimpeded through a large number of armed officers with his six-foot flag-draped spear and horned Viking helmet on his way to the Senate floor," he explained.

He notes Chansley "at no point" appears to be violent or threatening.

"Indeed, he appears to thank the officers for their guidance and assistance," he said.

He charged, "The public should have been given access to this footage long ago and the Jan. 6th Committee withheld important evidence on what occurred inside the Capitol on that day. While it is understandable that many would object to Carlson being given an exclusive in the initial release, many in the media are denouncing the release of the footage to the public at all. Press and pundits are now opposing greater transparency in resisting any contradiction of the narrative put forward by the Jan. 6th Committee. Indeed, one MSNBC commentator angrily objected that this is 'criminal evidence' — ignoring that it is evidence that was denied to criminal defendants."

He said he spoke with Chansley's counsel, Bill Shipley, who confirmed the evidence had been withheld by the government from him.

Had Democrats not withheld evidence in his case, Turley wrote, "Defense counsel could have noted that his 'obstruction' in going to an unoccupied Senate floor was facilitated by officers. While the police were clearly trying to de-escalate the situation after the Capitol was breached, this is evidence of how Chansley came to the Senate. Indeed, his interaction with officers could have impacted how he viewed the gravity of his conduct. It certainly would have been material to the court in sentencing the conduct."

But he said the judge who sentenced Chansley undoubtedly would have "found this footage material … frankly alarming."

He warned, "The role of Congress in withholding this footage is disgraceful and wrong. The Congress and the January 6th Committee knew of this footage and its relevance to a pending criminal case. Yet, they refused to make it public. Instead, the January 6th Committee hired a former ABC producer to put on a made-for-television production of highly edited images for public consumption. Countervailing evidence or images were consistently excluded and witnesses appeared as virtual props to support high-quality video packages."

The Epoch Times reported Boyle explained, "The request for additional time is necessary in order to adequately and diligently review all discovery pertaining to Mr. Jenkins and to determine whether any video contains relevant and material information that would pertain to Mr. Jenkins’ defense. Video evidence depicting Mr. Jenkins would constitute both exculpatory and material evidence, which would require disclosure from the government. Due to a large amount of video being released, and because Mr. Jenkins is currently incarcerated, we request additional time to review the information and prepare for trial."

The report cited another defendant, William Pope, who told the court he lacks access to "more than 99 percent of discovery" even though more than two years have elapsed since he was arrested.

Pope noted the legislative branch held the evidence.

"Now that the Legislative Branch has given defendants their blessing to have due process access to legislative files, the government’s already a weak argument to deny due process has collapsed. This court should immediately grant me full access to discovery,” he wrote.

Yet another defendant, Ryan Nichols, also asked for a delay in his trial so his lawyers could review the footage.

"Defendant’s position is simple and straightforward: there is no justifiable reason why this newly available evidence had not been made available before today—thus, any possible prejudice to the prosecution from a continuance is dwarfed by Defendant’s constitutional right to defend himself,” Nichols said through his lawyers.

Yet another request from defendant Sara Carpenter was rejected by Judge James Boasberg, who was given his lifetime job by Barack Obama.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Anthony Fauci, the former COVID-19 adviser to Joe Biden before he left his post a few weeks ago, covered up the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress was told in a bombshell hearing.

The Daily Mail is reporting top scientific advisers told Congress there's "mounting evidence" that the worldwide pandemic that killed millions and destroyed trillions of dollars worth of the American economy came from the Wuhan, China, lab where such viruses were being studied.

Dr. Jamie Metzl, a former staffer for Joe Biden, said he favored the lab leak theory as "the Chinese government has done everything in its power" to prevent that discussion.

His comments came to a House committee reviewing whether taxpayer-funded "gain-of-function" research work there "likely caused the virus."

Several government reports, from the Department of Energy and the FBI, now have acknowledged the likelihood of the virus coming from that very lab.

And Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, scorched Fauci for "trying to cover his backside" over the lab leak explanations.

Further, President Donald Trump's CDC director, Robert Redfield, charged Fauci ignored those types of concerns because he had adopted "a single narrative," which was the problematic suggestion the virus migrated from animals to humans without intervention.

The hearing in Congress, before the House Oversight Committee, Wednesday was part of the GOP's series of promises to investigate crises such as the Biden administration's border disaster, the war in Ukraine, the Afghanistan pullout, and many more issues, including the origins of COVID.

Jordan charged, "U.S tax dollars went to a lab in China, a lab that was not up to code, a lab that was doing gain of function research, and that's where this thing most definitely came from and Dr. Fauci could not have that news getting out," he said.

Further, Metzl said there was an incentive for China to say it came from an animal from which it could have migrated to people.

"Given that the Chinese government has every incentive to find an intermediary host, it's very significant that hasn't been found," he challenged. "I think it's very telling after three years we haven't found it."

Rep. Brad Wenstrup pointed out there was no "smoking gun" for any source theory.

But he pointed to the lack of safety measures at Wuhan, where Redfield confirmed the U.S. was funding "gain-of-function" research.

The witnesses, except for one sponsored by Democrats, agreed that there was no evidence to make a definite statement about the virus' source back in 2020.

Jordan simply accused Fauci of "trying to cover his backside" by making his claims about a natural evolution from animal to human.

Other Republicans cited decisions by Fauci and NIH director Francis Collins to approve gain-of-function work there, but noted the two "got caught with their hand in the cookie jar."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Jill Biden had a special televised interview this week – on Monday night – and a "tiny audience" actually "stumbled upon" it, according to a new report from Fox News.

That network, in fact, confirmed her ratings were lower than "TBS' midday repeats of 'Friends,' Investigation Discovery's 'Murder Comes Home,' 'Andy Griffith Show' and 'Gunsmoke' reruns on TV Land Classic, Hallmark's decades-old airings of 'The Golden Girls' and Lifetime's 'Castle' were among Monday’s basic cable offerings to outdraw CNN’s 9 p.m. ET program."

Bluntly describing how her "primetime special" on CNN was a "flop," the report noted the whole network has been struggling to viewers.

The 9 p.m. Eastern slot, in the heart of prime time, actually has been in turmoil since Chris Cuomo was fired more than a year ago.

"The 'CNN Primetime' special, branded 'Jill Biden Abroad,' featured an interview with CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz that shed a staggering 43% of viewers of CNN’s average 2023 9 p.m. ET viewership," the report said.

Jill Biden had "a dismal" 368,000 total viewers, far behind Fox News' 2.7 million and even MSNBC's 2.3 million for the same time.

"It was CNN’s worst weekday performance at 9 p.m. since June 17, 2022, except Christmas Eve, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day," the report said.

The report did note that the "tiny audience" that "stumbled upon" her show "got to hear her profess love for her stepson Hunter Biden," who repeatedly has provided scandal after scandal to his father as vice president and now president.

Those range from video encounters with prostitutes to drug-induced stupors to cutting huge financial deals with those living in states that are enemies of the U.S., such as Russia and China, in what critics have charged has been nothing less than a pay-for-play business.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The special, partisan committee set up by ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to review the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol, when some people rioted and vandalized, ignored a number of key factors.

One that never was addressed was Pelosi's own culpability, as she refused President Trump's offer of National Guard troops to protect the building that day.

Another was Capitol Police officer Tarik Johnson, who now has told Fox News's Tucker Carlson what happened that day.

According to Fox, Johnson, a 22-year veteran, was assigned to secure the certification for the 2020 presidential election, but that result still has questions hovering over it.

"My voice is one of the first ones you hear on the audio transmission, so I did expect to get an interview (with the Jan. 6 committee) sometime, but it didn't happen," Johnson explained.

"I guess the focus was on Donald Trump."

The committee's report, indeed, focused heavily on President Trump in attempting to find ways to blame him for the events that day.

Fox reported, "Despite pleas for help on Jan. 6, Johnson said he did not hear anything, not even from Capitol Police chief assistant Yogananda Pittman, who allegedly kept vital information about the protests from him. The federal intel and law enforcement agencies knew about the warnings of a massive disturbance at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Carlson said, but the frontline officers on duty that day did not know."

Johnson told Carlson, "We should have been better prepared that day, and we could have been better prepared that day if the information was disseminated like it was supposed to be."

He said he asked for guidance, but got none.

Then his career took a downward turn, all because he was spotted inside the Capitol wearing a Make America Great Again hat.

Fox said, "Johnson, a Biden voter, said a Trump supporter placed the MAGA hat on his head. He decided to keep wearing it for self-preservation as he navigated the pro-Trump crowd outside. Johnson was put on an indefinite suspension for doing so and later resigned and lost his pension."

But he still wonders why the Jan. 6, full of Democrats and two Trump-hating members of the GOP assigned to investigate that day, ignored him.

"I prayed almost daily that they would get to me," Johnson said. "I was never asked to testify… I was never asked by anybody connected to the January 6 Committee to testify. I asked myself why every day, and every day I might have a different answer. But, you know, pretty much they focused on Donald Trump and not the failures of the Capitol Police."

He told Carlson he believes some people were there, having planned violence, and some may have joined.

But mostly, he said, "I think that people wanted to support their president, they wanted to some of those people wanted just to support him. And some of those people didn't commit violence and some of those people didn't plan on it."

Carlson this week has been releasing portions of thousands of hours of security video from the Capitol that day. He was given access by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

He also noted comments from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., after the first round of clips appeared, showing often peaceful crowds in the Capitol, and officers even escorting one of the protesters into the Senate chamber.

That protester now has been sentenced to four years in jail for being there.

Carlson said, "You don't often see the Senate Majority leader openly call for censorship on the floor of the Senate as if that was totally normal and didn't contradict the spirit and the letter of the First Amendment. But of course, it does. But what's really happening here? What you're seeing is – hysteria, overstatement, crazed hyperbole, the red-in-the-face anger – what is that? Well, it's an outrage, of course. It's fear. It's panic."

He further explained, "Those videos which we did not retouch, which we brought to you after running by everyone, the Capitol Police, to make certain that we didn't imperil anybody… those videos touch a nerve because they're a threat to the lies that Chuck Schumer has been telling for the last 26 months."

Carlson openly questioned why Democrats are lying.

"Why is it so important that they would degrade themselves by telling such obvious lies and calling for censorship? Why? What are they trying to protect? That might be worth exploring and we plan to. And the second thing that we learned from this is that they're on the same side. The Senate Majority leader joins the Senate Minority leader, Thom Tillis, and Mitt Romney, they're all on the same side. So it's actually not about left and right, it's not about Republican and Democrat. Here, we have people with shared interests, the open borders people… the people who underneath it all have everything in common and are all aligned against everyone else. And that would include almost all news organizations in this country as well."

WND reported when the first videos appeared that Carlson confirmed they showed "lawmakers and the media were 'lying' about the events that took place on Jan. 6."

Those videos had been concealed from the public by Democrats ever since the events that day.

"Capitol police officers were seen escorting Jacob Chansley, a Navy veteran widely referred to in the liberal media as the 'QAnon Shaman,' around the building without incident. Carlson reported that officers were seen showing Chansley around, even trying to open locked doors for him. At one point, at least nine police officers were seen in close proximity to Chansley, and none of them slowed him down, as Carlson noted," a report said.

The Daily Mail confirmed, in fact, in footage screened on his show, Chansley was apparently seen being escorted into the Senate by Capitol police officers.

Carlson also reported Democrats used Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick’s death for their political agenda.

The evidence appeared to destroy multiple "narratives" that have been pushed by the now-defunct Democrat-controlled House Select Committee and legacy media, the report said.

The footage shows Trump supporters "peacefully touring the building, 'sightseers' as Carlson put it, but the footage of the rioters overwhelmingly consumed the news coverage of Jan. 6, which many in D.C. have compared to 9/11 and the attack on Pearl Harbor," Fox reported.

The report noted Chansley later was arrested and charged with "knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds." He was ordered to spend nearly four years in jail.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio and the chief of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, says the pattern established by the FBI to describe parents, Catholics, and pro-lifers as possible terrorists is very disturbing.

Jordan's comments were made in an interview with Just the News and followed last weekend's revelations from a whistleblower that the FBI created a "threat tag," THREATSTOSCOTUS2022," in order to hurt those to whom it was applied.

"If it's [targeting] parents, that's one thing," Jordan said on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "Traditional Catholics – okay, well, that's a concern too. But when it gets to be three, which is what we learned from a whistleblower when he said they were targeting pro-lifers, now we see a pattern, right? So it's parents, traditional Catholics, pro-lifers — all are wrong. Now it's a pattern."

The Daily Caller News Foundation explained, "Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last June, the FBI created a threat tag label 'THREATSTOSCOTUS2022,' FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle told the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government during a Feb. 10 interview. O’Boyle said the tag initially seemed 'legitimate' but later 'shifted and began focusing in on pro-life adherence.'"

"When this threat tag came out, it was like, why are you focusing on pro-life people?" O'Boyle said in the transcript obtained by Fox News. "It's pro-choice people who are the ones protesting or otherwise threatening violence in front of Supreme Court justices’ houses."

Just the News pointed out that similar labels had been used to denigrate multiple constituencies, such as Catholics.

It was O'Boyle who described how the FBI "made him divide one domestic terrorism case into four separate cases" to give the appearance of a bigger caseload.

The report said he explained that was done to give lawmakers conducting oversight "the appearance" of a spike in domestic terror so as to increase funding.

"It was one case, but the FBI had me open up four different cases," he said.

O'Boyle eventually was suspended by the FBI, and he has charged it was in retaliation for making protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress.

Jordan said one of the big concerns is "this attack on speech and this web of people …. this web of censorship is so scary. It's one of the things we're really going to try to focus on…"

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who already has arranged for Fox News' Tucker Carlson's crew to have access to January 6, 2021, security tapes from the U.S. Capitol, says he'll arrange for others to see the same video.

A report from the Post Millennial explained that McCarthy on Wednesday defended his decision to allow access to the 40,000-plus hours of video.

Already, multiple clips that have emerged have documented that Democrats who controlled that access for more than two years, and media outlets, were less than truthful about those events.

In fact, lawyers for defendants in cases stemming from the events that day are seeking delays in their cases so they can review the newly accessed "evidence" that could help their clients.

McCarthy said he wants transparency on the questions about that day, and, the report said, "he'd gladly hand the clips over to any network willing to air them in an honest fashion."

"Because of the footage that you gave Tucker Carlson, last night he went on and said it was 'mostly peaceful' chaos ... not an insurrection," a reporter with a clear pro-Democrat and anti-Fox bias told McCarthy. "Do you regret giving him that footage so he can whitewash the events of that day?"

McCarthy said no.

"I said at the very beginning, transparency, and so what I want to produce for everybody is exactly what I said, that people could actually look at it and see what's gone on that day."

He said the goal is for people to see what happened, and "draw their own conclusions," the report said.

Following the footage that aired earlier this week, President Trump demanded that all the January 6 detainees be released.

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) has disappeared from the public eye since his hospitalization for clinical depression on February 15th.

However, we finally got a look at Fetterman after his wife, Gisele Fetterman, posted the first pictures of him since his hospitalization at the Walter Reed Military Medical Center. The only issue is Gisele Fetterman's post revealed she has been in Pennsylvania instead of Washington D.C.

This comes after she took off for a trip to Canada which raises questions about why she isn't in Washington D.C. supporting her husband while he battles this crisis.

The Fetterman situation is already bad but his wife's bizarre absence only raises further questions.

What are Democrats hiding

The Democrat Party and the mainstream media have been less than honest with Americans about John Fetterman's health in an effort to ensure control of the U.S. Senate.

Fetterman's health has been in question since he suffered a near-fatal stroke in May last year. Many rightly questioned his ability to serve in Congress and those concerns have been validated as Fetterman has been hospitalized for over two weeks.

Fetterman should have been forced to exit the race following his stroke but instead, Democrats pushed him to stay in the race and now the added stress of being a Senator is clearly too much for Fetterman to handle.

Not only is his wife suspiciously absent from Fetterman's side, but his team is refusing to release any video or audio footage of Fetterman talking.

Louis Marinelli, the president of the political action committee Yes California, responded to the images of Fetterman from the hospital by saying, "He's not actually reading or discussing anything in those pictures. They came and gave him papers as a prop for a proof of life photo, then sent him back to bed."

Fetterman was already struggling with speech and other communication because of his stroke last year. So there is reason to suspect that Democrats are still hiding the true extent of Fetterman's condition.

Democrats in crisis

Questions about Fetterman's health aside, Democrats are now shorthanded in the Senate thanks to Fetterman's hospitalization and the hospitalization of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

Democrats hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate meaning that without Fetterman and Feinstein, the Senate is back to a tie. This is a major issue for Democrats as they now have no margin for error when it comes to legislation.

It turns out that electing Senators who have significant health problems can lead to serious complications. Democrats have made a mockery of our legislative branch and it is long past time we have more rigorous standards for those seeking to serve in Congress.

Long known for his history of verbal gaffes and blunders, the increasing frequency of which has prompted legitimate concern for his mental health, President Joe Biden may have explained his propensity for gaffes while simultaneously uttering one.

While sharing an anecdote about the brain aneurysms he previously suffered, Biden trailed off and skipped the part of the story about what doctors had diagnosed him with, the Western Journal reported.

Then, as is typical, the president made a self-deprecating joke and continued on with his remarks as if nothing had happened.

Biden loses track of his story

On Monday, President Biden delivered a speech at a Washington D.C. hotel where the annual legislative conference of the International Association of Firefighters was being held.

It wasn't long before Biden, as he often tends to do, began to share his folksy anecdotes about growing up in Delaware and how he had always appreciated and respected what firefighters do, and how they had personally impacted his life for the better on several occasions.

"And I’m not going to go through it all, but you literally -- my fire company at home saved my life," Biden said. "I came back from a trip, after being away for a couple of days, and -- I had these terrible headaches. I was diagnosed with having a ... well, anyway, they had to take the top of my head off a couple times, see if I had a brain."

BIDEN: "I was diagnosed with having a — anyway — they had to take the top of my head off a couple times to see if I had a brain..." pic.twitter.com/1qQSZtTTUw

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 6, 2023

The president went on to note that he'd had a "cranial aneurysm" and needed to get from his home in Delaware to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington D.C. for critical surgery but was prevented from flying due to a snowstorm. However, he credited his local fire company with saving his life by driving him down to D.C. in the middle of the storm for a "nine-hour operation."

Biden's 1988 brain aneurysms

What President Biden was referring to in that story, according to a 2019 report from the Delaware News Journal and excerpts from his 2007 autobiography, were the two nearly fatal brain aneurysms he suffered in February 1988 that occurred just after he'd dropped out of the presidential race due to accusations of plagiarism and the "contentious" Senate Judiciary Committee hearings the then-senator had just concluded in which he maliciously smeared judicial nominee Robert Bork.

After finishing a speech he delivered at the University of Rochester in New York, Biden returned to his hotel room and experienced "lightning flashing inside my head, a powerful electrical surge -- and then a rip of pain like I'd never felt before," and then fell unconscious for several hours.

Upon returning to Delaware, doctors in Wilmington performed a spinal tap and CT scan, discovered an aneurysm at the base of his brain, and concluded that Biden needed surgery in order to survive.

The senator then underwent two "microsurgical craniotomy" surgeries at Walter Reed, in February and May of 1988, and eventually returned to Congress in August of that year after he was deemed to have sufficiently rested and recovered.

Perhaps this helps explain things

Notably enough, that 2019 report that cited Biden's 2007 book made no mention of any snowstorms or local firefighters driving him to Walter Reed as part of his brain aneurysm saga, leaving us to wonder if Biden misremembered the 1988 incident or, perhaps, added in that previously unmentioned detail in light of the audience for his remarks.

Regardless, the viral clip of the president trailing off amid his recollection of brain surgery earned plenty of mockery on social media, per the Western Journal, and may, in fact, help explain why he is the way that he is.