A Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this week found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe President Joe Biden lacks the mental fitness to serve out a second term in office.

While the president has fought to counter that perception, an incident this week suggests he is losing the battle. However, his administration appears to have adopted a Plan B. 

Biden stumbles through speech on student loan relief

Biden's latest misstep occurred on Wednesday as he struggled to read a teleprompter while touting his student debt relief plan, saying, "And I thought I'd make a lot more sense to relieve students for families and...uh...grow our economy."

Biden is really struggling to read from his giant teleprompter today pic.twitter.com/MqHqemMQsf

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 21, 2024

"Well, there is, were existing programs in the law for fixing the (unintelligible) programs. Uh, we had to change them to make people, uh, actually, make them available, make people eligible," the president added.

What's more, Biden also struggled to recount an anecdote about his father, stating, "My dad used to say, 'Joey a, uh, a paycheck is about more than a, uh, a job is about more than a paycheck."

White House taking "more aggressive posture toward the press"

The president's shaky performance came less than two weeks after Special Counsel Robert Hur cited President Joe Biden's declining mental prowess when explaining his decision not to prosecute the president for mishandling classified documents.

While Biden attempted to push back on Hur's assertion at a White House press conference, his effort was undermined when he at one point mixed up the presidents of Egypt and Mexico.

Specifically, "an unusual letter" was sent by aide Ian Sams to the White House Correspondents' Association which voiced grievances about how Hur's report had been covered.

Sams singled out what he considered to be unfair coverage from  CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, and The Associated Press.

White House Correspondents' Association calls letter "inappropriate"

Another complaint was lodged by the president's campaign alleging that media figures spent more time discussing Biden's age than remarks former President Donald Trump made regarding NATO.

However, those moves were not well received by association president and NBC News correspondent Kelly O'Donnell.

She told the Associated Press, "It is inappropriate for the White House to utilize internal pool distribution channels, primarily for logistics and the rapid sharing of need-to-know information, to disseminate generalized critiques of news coverage."