Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden struggled through a live television interview on CNN last Friday where he was supposed to discuss what his response would be to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus. He appeared along with Dr. Sanjay Gupta as they were interviewed by host Anderson Cooper.

At one point during the interview, he tried to say something about a move that President Roosevelt did during the Second World War when he came up with the War Production Board, but instead of saying that straight, he struggled to make a coherent statement. For 20 seconds, the former vice president seemed to have lost his train of thought and even had to look down at what must have been his notes. Cooper and Gupta, whose faces appeared at the same time on the screen kept straight faces as Biden fumbled with what he was trying to say.

It seems that Biden is on a roll this week when it comes to giving evidence of his rapid cognitive decline. During the same Friday appearance, he seemed to have a hard time recalling what year the 9/11 attacks took place. On an earlier appearance on Morning Joe with his wife, he lost his train of thought and struggled for 10 seconds struggling to get back on track while his wife kept staring straight pretending nothing’s wrong. Back on Wednesday, during one of the virtual town halls that he is running now, he calls the strain of the coronavirus that is causing the present pandemic as COVID9.

Biden’s defenders say that he has always been prone to gaffes and slips when speaking in public and that is one of his endearing characteristics. His critics, however, say that there is nothing endearing about an old man who is in clear cognitive decline who is being pushed by his political party to run for office. Others are pointing to the tremendous strain that he will have to carry should he get elected to office and he might not be able to handle the strain.

While he has been prone to gaffes in the past, he has been committing those more often. His questionable condition is one of the reasons why some Democrats are refusing to support him, particularly the supporters of Bernie Sanders, despite Sanders publicly announcing his endorsement for Biden. Critics of the Democratic party are questioning why they would push for such a weak candidate, who obviously does not stand a chance against Donald Trump on the debate stage.