Did you watch the Thursday Biden press conference? If you did you saw the sad spectacle of a man clearly not in charge of his own faculties, a man who had to rely on cheat sheets he carried to answer even the most basic questions.

Further, it wasn’t just Biden’s mental vapor lock on his “120 years” in the senate stumble, which had none of the timing or verbal earmarks of a joke. It was his tone, his obvious struggle with expressing himself, his inability to cogently fashion a coherent argument. This was apparent to all on Thursday and must have also been apparent to his staff before the press conference. So, why did they send him out there?

For perhaps the same reason they kept him locked in a basement for months during a presidential campaign. They know he is ill, but they need a decent interval between his inauguration and invoking the 25th Amendment to install Kamala Harris as president.

Nancy Pelosi almost gave the game away last year. During a congressional study of the 25th Amendment, Pelosi admitted her interest in the amendment had nothing to do with Trump. Gee, then who? Think this is ridiculous alarmist twaddle? Just another right wing conspiracy theory? One problem with those modes of thought, the Democrats have kept mentally ill men in office before and covered it up. Twice.

Just over a century ago Democrat Woodrow Wilson, the worst president in American history, lay an invalid in the White House. He had suffered a severe stroke in October of 1919. His term ended in January of 1921. In the interim he was mentally incapacitated and his wife Edith and a top aide ran the country. It was known to the press, but it was kept covered up to protect Wilson and Democrat Party. That was before the 25th Amendment.

Slightly over twenty years later, the Democrats did it again. By late 1944 Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a very sick man. His face was gaunt, he had trouble speaking, and it was hard for him to remember details. The White House staff knew this. But it was the last year of the Second World War and America needed the perception of a strong wartime leader.

As his health worsened, the duties of his office increased as the stage was being set for the postwar world. In February of 1945 Roosevelt traveled to meet British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin for an international conference at Yalta, in the Crimea. Many vital topics of world affairs and American national security were to be discussed at the confab and the US president was dying both physically and mentally.

Because of Roosevelt’s massive mental disability, much to the dismay of Churchill, he gave the Soviets all they asked for in negotiations. He thus began the Cold War, and all that went with it, by showing the Soviets that America, its feeble president, and the West could be successfully pushed around. He died in April. That was before the 25th Amendment.

Thus the Democrats have covered up for mentally impaired men in office before and are doing it again. But in this press environment they know a Wilson or Roosevelt situation would be impossible to extend forever. However, they now have the 25th Amendment and don’t have to wait for the next election or for a president to die in office. They can act before that. And they will.