GOP Rep. Scott DesJarlais, a former doctor, is urging President Joe Biden to take a cognitive test as the 80-year-old Democrat prepares for an expected White House run in 2024.
“I think it would be important to see a very thorough and comprehensive study of cognitive functioning that is made transparently available to the general public,” the Tennessee Republican told the Washington Examiner. “The American people want to know that their Commander-in-Chief is fully capable of working at the highest level to protect the safety and security of the nation.”
Biden has been known to be prone to slip-ups, from the awkward “Where’s Jackie?” in September — when the president called out to the audience for a dead congressman — to last week when Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia mistyped the name called.
DesJarlais’ comments come as Biden’s deadline to receive a physical will slips into February after first saying it would be completed by the end of last year and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it would happen in January .
President Joe Biden initially said he would be done with his investigation by the end of the year, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later said it would be completed by the end of January
Rep. Scott DesJarlais, a former doctor and Republican from Tennessee, is urging President Joe Biden to take a cognitive test as the 80-year-old Democrat prepares for an expected White House run in 2024
“He’ll have one before the end of this month is over,” Jean-Pierre said during the Jan. 23 briefing. “He – we share the information. We’ll have more to report before the month is out.’
Instead, Biden spent the last few days of the month traveling — first to Camp David and then home in Wilmington, Delaware, for the night.
He then delivered an infrastructure speech in Baltimore on Monday and will do the same in New York on Tuesday, while also holding a fundraiser and political event.
The delay has provided Republicans with a political opening — allowing them to link it to a broader lack of transparency, which has not been helped by the White House releasing the public about the classified documents kept in Biden’s former office in DC and his home in Delaware – some of which were originally found before the November midterm elections.
“Seriously, where’s Biden? No press interviews, the White House press secretary has lost credibility, and the administration is dodging, distracting, and delaying matters that deserve full transparency,” a senior GOP official told the examiner. “The American people deserve better than Biden’s dishonesty and dodges.”
Biden’s first physical as president was released on November 19, 2021.
At that time, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, said Biden was a “healthy, vigorous, 78-year-old,” but didn’t say whether cognitive testing was done.
Trump famously boasted in July 2020 that he asked his doctor to allow him to take a cognitive test to “silence these people,” referring to those who have criticized his mental fitness for office.
“It was 30 or 35 questions. The first questions are very simple. The last questions are much more difficult. Like a memory question,” Trump said in an interview with Fox. “It’s like, you’re going to go ‘person, woman, man, camera, television.’ So they say, “Could you repeat that?” So I said, “Yeah. Well, it’s: person, woman, man, camera, TV.” OK, that’s very good. If you fix it, you get extra points,” Trump explained.
The President said that 10 minutes later he was asked to repeat the words in order one more time and successfully did so.
‘”Can you do it?” And you say, “person, woman, man, camera, television,” Trump said. “They say, ‘That’s amazing, how did you do that?’ I do it because I have such a good memory. Because I’m there cognitively,” he said.
The clip went viral and was used as fodder by comedians.
Trump, 76, announced in mid-November that he would run for the White House again in 2024.