GOP lawmakers, ex-White House physician demand Biden take cognitive test and release the results
Thomas McDonald
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Over a dozen House Republicans, led by the former White House physician Ronny Jackson, have sent a letter to President Joe Biden demanding he takes a cognitive test and releases the results to the American people.
“After this most recent embarrassing performance overseas, I thought it was time to come out [with the letter],” Jackson said. “We can’t sit on this any longer.”
“They [The American people] deserve to know that he or she can perform the duties of Head of State and Commander in Chief. They deserve full transparency on the mental capabilities of their highest elected leader,” the letter says.
The letter is copied to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical advisor as well as the current White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor. It claims that Biden’s “mental decline and forgetfulness have become more apparent over the past eighteen months.”
One instance of Biden’s apparent mental decline noted in the letter is from a March 8 incident where he seemed to forget the name of the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin.
“I want to thank the sec, the, the, ah former general. I keep calling him general, but my, my, the guy who runs that outfit over there,” Biden said while announcing the nomination of two female generals to lead US military combatant commands.
The letter also details a moment Biden had this past February while visiting areas affected by storm damage in Texas where he botched the names of several lawmakers and even had to be reminded why he was there. According to Jackson, Biden “misidentified the time of day and Senator John Cornyn’s title, and you mispronounced Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee’s first name and Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher’s maiden name of Pannill. Then, apparently forgetting the purpose of your visit, you questioned, ‘what am I doing here?’”
The third example given in the letter of Biden’s mental decline dates back to March 2020, when Biden failed to successfully recite the first line from the Declaration of Independence. Biden said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women are created by the, you know, you know, the thing.”
“Most school-age children could recite that famous and revered patriotic phrase by heart, but you could not,” Jackson writes.
Not mentioned in the letter is Biden’s most recent forgetful moment during his trip overseas for the G7 meeting with world leaders where he forgot that moments earlier Boris Johnson had introduced the president of South Africa, only to be reminded that in fact, Johnson did introduce the South African leader followed by an outbreak of laughter from the world leaders at Biden’s expense.
“He’s not inspiring confidence in our allies overseas, and more importantly, he’s sending the wrong message to our adversaries overseas. This is a dangerous situation right now. I feel like we really need to know what’s going on,” Jackson said.
Jackson is a former Navy admiral and worked in the White House Medical Unit for more than a decade. He garnered national attention in 2018 after describing former President Donald Trump’s health as “excellent” and noting no concerns over Trump’s cognitive abilities.
“The mainstream media and the far left and the Democrats, they were relentless in the pursuit of me when I was taking care of President Trump, just demanding that he have a cognitive test, that he have a physical exam that included a cognitive test,” Jackson said.
“They said that every president should have that. It should be the new standard, and we should know that our commander in chief and our head of state is capable of leading the nation,” Jackson added.
“And so we did,… President Trump had a perfect score on his cognitive test, an outstanding performance, and I’m just saying that is the new standard, that the precedent has been set and I’m asking Joe Biden and his medical team to get out there and to get this physical exam done, get this cognitive testing done, and get the results back to the American people,” Jackson continued.
Jackson was later nominated by Trump to lead the Veterans’ Administration but he withdrew his nomination after accusations arose claiming Jackson had earned the moniker “Candy Man” for improperly overprescribing opioids to White House staff. Other accusations shortly followed of him drinking on the job and creating hostile working environments.
Jackson denies the allegations calling them “baseless” and “completely false” and “fabricated.” A Pentagon watchdog report was released which substantiated claims of drinking on the job as well as brought up new allegations of sexual misconduct of a female subordinate.
The letter is signed by Jackson and 13 other Republicans, including Representatives Bob Gibbs of Ohio, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Andy Harris of Texas, Brian Babin of Texas, Jody Hice of Georgia, Claudia Tenney of New York, Gregory Steube of Florida, Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, Kat Cammack of Florida, Jerry L. Carl of Alabama, Pat Fallon of Texas, Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee, and Beth Van Duyne of Texas.