Former ESPN host Sage Steele recounted an experience interviewing President Joe Biden that highlighted for her his cognitive decline.
Appearing Sunday on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, Steele shared the strange exchange she had with Biden during a March 2021 interview. The occasion was the beginning of the Major League Baseball season.
Before the virtual interview, she said she could hear Biden’s audio but could not see him because the White House staff had covered the camera lens on his side.
“I heard him and he goes, ‘What is this for?’ … And he’s like, ‘Who am I talking to? Wait — what’s her name?’” Steele recalled.
“This is like a ‘Naked Gun’ movie,” Maher joked in response.
Eventually, Biden came to understand the interview would be for “SportsCenter.”
Trying to fill in the time as they prepared to start the interview, Steele said, “Hi, Mr. President. Nice to meet you.”
Biden responded by launching into some tales about his college football days.
“And he said, ‘You know, I used to play football,” Steele said. “And so he started to tell football stories of his greatness. … He goes, ‘And I had the best hands.’”
“And then I said, ‘Oh, so you were a receiver.’ And he started to explain it. And here’s the saddest thing — his voice just trailed off. He said, ‘I was good,’ and then he went silent, and he goes, ‘Uh… never mind,’” Steele recounted.
Former ESPN host Sage Steele says that interviewing Joe Biden was “the saddest thing” because he seemed confused and “couldn’t finish his sentences.”
“His voice just trailed off. He said, ‘I was good,’ and then he went silent, and he goes …, ‘Uh, never mind’.” pic.twitter.com/UaIU1wqoW4
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 5, 2023
Maher burst out laughing, but Steele said, “I thought it was so sad because I realized that’s why he was in his basement during the whole election cycle. Because even then, he couldn’t finish his sentences. He struggled. … That made me sad.”
Maher asked if Steele had voted for the president, and she responded, “Hell no, I didn’t vote for Biden. Look what we have.”
She said she voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020.
“I love it that you love Trump,” said Maher, who very much does not. He added, “It’s so much more interesting. … It’s honest.”
“Can I correct one thing?” Steele interjected. “I don’t love him. There’s a big difference in voting for someone and loving them because, by the way, I don’t love any politician. There’s always a screw loose with all of them because who would want to do that?”
“I don’t love him. I don’t hate him,” she continued. “Here’s the thing, though. What I have been able to do … [is] separate who they are as people and whatever they’ve done in the past — their track record, as my dad used to say — from their policies.”
As a side note, Steele’s father, retired Col. Gary Steele, is a 1970 graduate of West Point. He was the first African-American to play varsity football for Army. Gary Steele was inducted into the Army Sports Hall of Fame in 2013 for both football and track and field.
But back to politics.
Sage Steele told Maher, “I don’t think most people can separate — and they go with their feelings.”
“And our feelings don’t freaking matter. So no matter how much you hate or love someone, like, what are they doing that is not just best for you and your family, but for the country and our national security and our economy? And so I just try to separate and not look at the crazy,” Steele said.
Maher himself made clear on his HBO program “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday that he does not want Biden to run for a second term.
“Someone has to convince President Biden that if he runs again, he’s going to turn the country back over to Trump and go down in history as Ruth Bader Biden, the person who doesn’t know when to quit and so does great damage to their party and their country,” Maher said.
WARNING: The following video contains language that some viewers may find offensive.
Dear @JoeBiden, you did noble service for your country, but it’s time to let someone else finish the job. You don’t want to go down as Ruth Bader Biden. pic.twitter.com/fJNkjBvgtO
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) September 30, 2023
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died while still serving on the bench, leaving a vacancy that Trump filled with Amy Coney Barrett in October 2020.
Maher noted while Biden was able to beat Trump in November 2020, times have changed and Biden has aged.
“2024 is not 2020 in so many key ways, including, yes, Biden being four years older,” he said. “You can be a national treasure and still be too old for the job.”
So despite Maher and Steele being on different sides of the political spectrum, they both agree Biden’s not up for the job.
It’s looking less and less likely that the president will be the Democratic Party’s 2024 nominee.
