Senile Congressman Curses at Photographer

The 79-year-old plays a key role in preventing a government shutdown

Rep. David Scott yells at press for taking his photo | POLITICO

The country is hurtling toward a possible government shutdown after a funding plan collapsed yesterday. One top negotiator is angry — at the press.

“Who gave you the right to take my picture, asshole?” congressman David Scott yelled at a photographer on Wednesday. The 79-year-old Democrat was being pushed in a wheelchair by a staffer just outside the Capitol. A public official in a public place, it might seem surprising that such an experienced politician wouldn’t understand that the press doesn’t need permission to take his picture. I wasn’t surprised because I know something that’s an open secret on Capitol Hill.

He’s senile.

There, I said it. I’m going to get dogpiled for saying it. I’ll be called “ageist” and the self-appointed deans of journalism will tut-tut me for commenting on his cognitive state when I’m not a doctor (an impossible evidentiary standard since doctors can’t comment on these things publicly). Or I’ll just be called mean.

These types of smears succeeded at getting the major media to self-censor on the subject of President Biden’s decline, which in my experience in Washington, just about any journalist would acknowledge after a couple drinks. The end result was, of course, Kamala Harris having to speed run a last-minute presidential campaign. This could have been avoided and a serious Democratic primary held — something that’s in the best interests of all Americans — had the news media simply had the courage to state the obvious.

So I’ll do that again here: Rep. David Scott is senile. You don’t have to believe my Capitol Hill sources (current and former staffers, lobbyists, etc.) to see that. Just watch him speak.

Now compare that with a younger Scott, shown here speaking vigorously (and without a script):

For obvious reasons, Scott very rarely does interviews anymore, but his performance during hearings is telling. As you can see in the first video, Scott’s halting speech (notice how he momentarily blanks on President’s Biden name) sounds like it’s being played in slow motion. He is shown relying on a script, which Scott frequently does, because he “has trouble carrying out substantive conversations in real time,” as Politico reported earlier this year.

That’s a problem in the context of the high-stakes negotiations taking place now to keep the U.S. government open. As ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, Scott is responsible for negotiating a budget that funds not just farmers but the entire food system. It doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that just last month he missed two weeks of votes due to being hospitalized for what he said were back issues.

Why does this shambling mummy have a leadership position at all? You can thank what I call the Mothball Mafia — the group of congressional 80-somethings who seem to do everything in their power to preserve the gerontocracy. In 2022, when lawmakers tried to prevent Scott from leading the Agriculture Committee due to concerns about his physical decline, Reps. Nancy Pelosi (84), Jim Clyburn (84) and Steny Hoyer (85) circled the wagons around Scott and insisted everything was fine.

“The Speaker has confidence in Chairman Scott’s leadership,” Pelosi’s chief of staff said at the time.

That’s the kind of unabashed lying the American people are up against. Until the media states with equal confidence what it knows to be true — that guys like Scott are senile — the gerontocracy isn’t going anywhere.