President Joe Biden's gaffes and stumbles early on in his presidential career were alarming, but mostly written off as one-off incidents. 

However, as his cognitive and physical health declined in front of America's eyes, it didn't take long for most reasonable and objective people to deduce that the United States president was nothing more than a frail and weak elderly man, which doesn't exactly look impressive on a global scale, especially in front of America's adversaries.

Biden's extreme decline was on full display to the country -- and the world -- during his debate performance with former President Donald Trump, and it came to a point where the White House, the media, and his allies could no longer hide it.

That quickly led to his ouster from running for a second term. However, according to the Daily Mail, some saw Biden's true decline years ago.

Spotted early on

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) recently told the outlet that he was well aware of Biden's severe cognitive decline years ago when, during a reception, the elderly, confused president mistook Lee's wife for a White House staffer on multiple occasions in the same evening.

Lee described the situation to the Daily Mail as "uncomfortable" at the time, and isn't surprised that the president is no longer in the running after his allies were no longer able to hide just how bad his condition is.

The outlet noted:

He said what really struck him was that he and his wife, Sharon, had met the president on multiple occasions.

But during that White House reception for congressional spouses about two years ago, the president did not even recognize her when she said hello to the president.

Biden would ask for her name multiple times and asked if she worked for him in the White House, creating what one can only imagine to be an incredibly awkward series of encounters.

Even worse, she would correct the president and remind him that she was Lee's wife before Biden would again ask her if she was a White House staffer. Yikes.

Lee described the encounter to Tucker Carlson.

"Deer in headlights"

"He was not quite there," Lee said. "There was a kind of a deer in the headlights phenomenon. [Sharon] said 'it was like I was talking to somebody who wasn't aware of what was going on."

Lee added, "I've interacted a fair amount with with Joe Biden over the years, my wife a lot less, of course, but enough times that she was able to recognize what is his personality and what isn't, and she realized this is very out of character for him."

The Utah Republican described the encounter as "alarming."

Only time will tell if additional people come out with similar stories. There's probably a lot of them.