!['We can no longer indulge his delusions': Legendary announcer Bob Costas says Biden's cognitive decline was obvious](https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/we-can-no-longer-indulge-his-delusions-legendary-announcer-bob-costas-says-biden-s-cognitive-decline-was-obvious.jpg?id=52815383&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C107)
Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis
Costas said those close to the president must have known he was in trouble for some time.
Iconic sports announcer and vocal Democrat Bob Costas accused the Democratic Party of "gaslighting" its voters by pretending that President Biden was not going through an obvious mental decline.
Costas has been adamantly anti-Trump in recent years but has also called out some of the more obvious flaws of the Democrats.
Keeping with that theme, the announcer spoke to CNN's Michael Smerconish and reflected on Biden's infamous presidential debate performance that had Democrats calling for him to step out of the race.
"That one atrocious night was simply writ-large what could be seen for years and years, that he is in serious decline," Costas told Smerconish. "Nobody should be president when they're 85 or 86, including the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, but this guy is clearly in decline at this point," he continued.
"And part of the job, leaving aside whether he can do it for the next four years, is winning the job. And as you just laid out, that seems to be nearly impossible at this point."
'It makes you wonder whether we've been gaslit by the Democrats.'
Costas then explained that Democrats have continued to defend Biden despite the obvious cognitive issues he has had.
"Many Democrats are still saying this ... they lay out all the reasons why Donald Trump is loathsome and a threat to democracy and an existential threat, and they say that's why we have to get behind Joe Biden. No, that's exactly why Joe Biden must be ushered out," he clarified, per Awful Announcing.
"Biden had a chance to be seen by history as a statesman and a patriot. He spared the nation a second Trump term, he could have gone out in a gracious fashion. Now, we can no longer indulge his delusions," Costas said firmly.
The sports broadcaster was definitely ahead of the curve in terms of Democrats who have called for Biden's replacement. Costas came out in February 2024 and said that the president was too frail to complete a second term.
He said at the time that "at best" President Joe Biden could "squeak by" to beat Trump in 2024, but even if he was re-elected, "It's very likely that he cannot complete his second term."
"He'd be 86 at the end of it," he added.
The announcer has made sure, however, to include a jab at Republicans whenever he criticizes his own party. When he first said Biden was too old to continue, he added that MAGA supporters were in a "toxic cult" and under a "toxic delusion" to think that Trump was ever "emotionally, psychologically, intellectually, or ethically fit" to serve as America's president.
Weeks earlier, he called it "crazy" for men to compete in women's sports but also said Trump supporters are in a "cult" and a "coalition of the brainless and ... the spineless."
Costas indeed took a shot at Republicans in his most recent appearance on CNN, as well, when he accused Democrats of gaslighting their voters:
"It makes you wonder whether we've been gaslit by the Democrats," he said. "The Republicans major in gaslighting everybody with Trump as their standard-bearer, but this had to have been obvious to people surrounding the president, people who observed the president. Wouldn't it have been an act of patriotism, if that's not too overblown a word in this case, to lay that out before the American public?"
Blaze News contributor T.J. Moe responded to Costas' comments by saying that the announcer's views will soon be a thing of the past.
"Thank God the attitude of the country is leaving guys like Costas behind," Moe wrote on X.
Thank God the attitude of the country is leaving guys like Costas behind.
— T.J. Moe (@TJMoe28) July 15, 2024
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Andrew Chapados