‘Get It Done’: Trump, Obama’s White House Doctor Calls For Biden To Undergo Cognitive Test
A former White House physician has called on President Joe Biden to respond to calls for him to undergo a cognitive test as a follow-through to Democrat’s own demand for former President Donald Trump to be assessed previously.
Republican Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson — Trump’s former White House physician — said it needs to get done.
“The far left and the mainstream media were demanding that be the new standard for anybody who’s going to lead our country and be our commander-in-chief and our head of state,” the former White House physician told Fox News.
“I’m just saying I agree with them at this point — we need to get it done,” he added.
He noted that former President Trump set a precedent in taking a cognitive exam and that Biden should do the same amid persisting questions about his mental capacity to lead the country at 78 years old, becoming the oldest American president elected.
During Trump’s time as chief executive, Democrats demanded that he take a cognitive exam following speculation on his mental aptitude one year into his presidency. The former Republican president agreed then to be assessed and he took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) — described as a 30-point exam that tests for memory impairment.
Former Democrat President Barack Obama, Biden’s former boss, also reportedly took a cognitive test at the beginning of his second year in office.
Test for memory impairment, not IQ
When I was President Trump's White House physician, the media ATTACKED him because they falsely claimed the cognitive exam he ACED was "too easy." Well, if it's SO EASY like the media said, why won't Biden take the same test and release the results? Cognitively impaired! pic.twitter.com/OrNjtxbib2
— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) June 30, 2021
The now-Texas lawmaker, who administered the test to Trump, said the exam is a test for age-related problems such as dementia or cognitive decline.
The White House said last month that Biden is due to take a physical exam “later this year” – which Fox News said, if done before next year would be completed sooner than Trump’s health tests.
But Jackson noted that the White House has not been clear whether a cognitive exam is included in Biden’s scheduled health exam.
“I think he’s demonstrating every single day that there is something going on,” Jackson said. “You don’t need to be a physician to look at this behavior and see there’s something concerning happening.”
The freshman Texas Republican cited a number of instances where Democrat President Biden appeared to him as “confused.”
“I’m just asking them: when you do the physical exam include the cognitive assessment?” he said, according to Fox News. “As far as I’m concerned the standard precedent has been set and they need to follow and do the same.”
“You can go back – there’s forty years of tape of this man – he’s always made gaffes and stuff but these are different, he’s confused, he’s disoriented,” Jackson argued.
“We all know people who are 100-years old, who basically are as sharp as a tack, and we know people who are in their mid-60’s that have some cognitive difficulties…and I think he’s on that end of the spectrum,” he added. “He’s just not aging gracefully at this point.”
Pelosi earlier called for Trump’s cognitive test
The Texas congressman also pointed out that former President Trump already set a precedent regarding a chief executive’s mental test — a move that he said was supported by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Trump era.
In October 2020, Pelosi even introduced a measure that would put up a bipartisan commission of health advisers tasked into evaluating the mental ability of a president to serve the country’s highest office.
“This is not about President Trump … this legislation applies to future presidents, but we are reminded of the necessity of action by the health of the current president,” she said then. “It’s not about any of us making a judgment about the president’s well-being.”
Now, Republicans are voicing the same concern about Biden.
Jackson along with a group of 14 Republicans earlier sent Biden a letter pressing him to take a cognitive test and to make the results public.
The Texas lawmaker — who also earlier served under former presidents George W. Bush and Obama — gave Trump a clean bill of health after both an annual physical and cognitive test that came amid doubts from Democrats on his mental fitness to serve.
Jackson said at that time that Trump was “mentally very sharp.”
“We believe that, regardless of gender, age, or political party, all presidents should follow the precedent set by former President Trump to document and demonstrate sound mental abilities,” Jackson and his GOP colleagues said in their letter to Biden on June 17.
Jackson on Saturday told Fox News: “I’m just asking them, when you do the physical exam include the cognitive assessment,” he said.
“As far as I’m concerned the standard precedent has been set and they need to follow and do the same.”
A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports at end-June 2020 found that “nearly 40%” of likely voters believe that now-President Biden is experiencing some form of dementia, according to a new poll published Monday.
Twenty percent of those were Democratic voters who believe Biden is experiencing some form of “serious cognitive decline.”
