Ronny Jackson demands Biden take a cognitive test or drop out of 2024 race
Former White House physician Ronny Jackson, a Republican who now represents Texas in Congress, sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday demanding he take a cognitive test or drop out of the race.
Jackson, an ally of former President Donald Trump, has long called for more transparency about 80-year-old Biden’s health, writing in the letter that “your mental decline and forgetfulness have become more apparent.”
Biden officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign Tuesday morning with running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, prompting Jackson to again insist that the president undergo a “cognitive assessment.”
“In the past two years, public appearances where you shuffle your feet, stumble as you walk, swallow your words, forget names, lose your train of thought and appear momentarily confused have become more common,” Jackson’s letter said. obtained by Fox News. “These incidents are so common and striking that if you search online for ‘Biden blunders’, more than 14,000,000 results will appear.”
Jackson called on Biden to “either resign immediately and forego your re-election bid or submit to a clinically validated cognitive screening and make those results public.”
Former White House physician Ronny Jackson, a Republican who now represents Texas in Congress, sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday demanding he take a cognitive test or drop out of the race
Biden officially announced his 2024 presidential bid on Tuesday and released a video
Biden has completed two physical tests since taking office, but neither referred to cognitive tests.
In February, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked to respond to Nikki Haley’s hopeful GOP call for candidates over age 75 to take competency tests.
Jean-Pierre highlighted 80-year-old President Joe Biden’s record on COVID, helping the economy improve and his party outperforming expectations against the Republicans during the interim.
“And so, I don’t know, maybe they’ve forgotten, maybe they’ve forgotten the victories that this president has had in recent years, but I’m happy to remind them at any time,” said Jean-Pierre. .
Haley’s push for competency testing has targeted Biden, but also her Republican rival Trump, who is 76.
Trump famously boasted in July 2020 that he had asked Jackson, then serving as a White House physician, to give him a cognitive test to “shut up these people,” referring to those who criticized his mental fitness to hold 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 going ‘Person, woman, man, camera, TV.’ So they say, “Can you repeat that?” So I said, “Yes. So, it’s: person, woman, man, camera, TV.” OK, that’s very good. If you get it right, you get extra points,” Trump explained.
The president then said that 10 minutes later he was asked to repeat the words again in order and he successfully did so.
“Can you do it?” And you say, “Person, woman, man, camera, TV,” Trump said. “They say, ‘That’s great, how did you do that?’ I do it because I have a good memory. Because I’m there cognitively,” he said.
The clip went viral and was used for feed by comedians.