OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Texas GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, who previously served as the White House physician under the Obama and Trump administrations, says he has concerns about President Joe Biden.
During an interview on Fox News, Jackson called Biden’s cognitive abilities into question and discussed what could be behind his struggles.
“Well, I mean, congressman, there were signs that Joe Biden was declining during the 2020 campaign. I mean, let’s face it. He stayed in the basement the whole time during the campaign. So who knew what when? Are they hiding this and feeding him drugs to allow him to function? I know he goes home to Delaware a lot, more than any other president. So I guess my question is, what did Obama know? What did Jill Biden know? And who’s running the White House right now and are they covering up for these mental issues?” host Maria Bartiromo asked.
“Well, that’s the big question everybody’s asking, who’s really pulling the strings, who’s running the country right now? We don’t know the answer to that. We don’t know if it’s Susan Rice or Ron Klain or if it’s Joe Biden or who it is, but somebody else is doing this. They’re doing exactly what you said, they’re rolling him out at specific times during the day, he’s got good days and bad days,” Jackson began.
“And whether or not they have him on drugs, I don’t know. There are drugs out that that can increase your alertness and your memory and things of that nature, you know, cover stuff like this up temporarily. So, I’m sure some of that is going on as well, but we don’t know because his physician hasn’t stood up and took the questions that I took when I was Trump’s physician and answered those questions,” Jackson continued.
He added: “With regards to the Obama Administration and who should’ve done something about it, they saw him every day and they stayed in close contact with him, I’m sure after the Obama-Biden Administration was over. Somebody should have done something. Maria, I think they were so blinded by the fact that if Joe Biden came into office, they were going to be able to populate the entire West Wing with Obama folks, and that actually happened. Initially, there were a ton of Obama folks in the West Wing and we have Susan Rice running domestic policy right now. So, I think that they thought that the risk was worth it to get their people back into the West Wing, and they just ignored the fact that this man had some serious cognitive issues. And now they’re going to have to answer why, because it’s getting worse, it’s unsustainable at this particular point.”
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Jackson issued a similar warning last month, saying Biden needs to undergo an immediate cognitive exam because he is “not fit to be our president right now.”
“Every time he gets up and talks to the American people, it’s not just the American people that are watching him speak, it’s the whole world, and that’s part of what the problem is here,” Jackson also said. “He looks tired, he looks weak, he looks confused, he’s incoherent, and it sends a message of weakness all over the world, and they’re seizing up on that,” he added.
“He’s got 40 years of tape, you can go back and look at this man, so it’s not like we don’t have anything to compare it to,” Jackson said. “You can go back and look, he’s always made gaffes, he’s always made missteps, but never like this. This is something different. These aren’t gaffes…. This is something much more serious.”
Several Republicans have also called on Biden to take a cognitive test because they believe his “mental decline” has “become more apparent.”
Nearly 40 GOP congressional members want Biden to follow the precedent set by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, as recent polling increasingly shows more Americans are not certain of Biden’s mental fitness for the demanding job of president.
“My colleagues and I are again asking President Biden to immediately undergo a formal cognitive screening exam, such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA),” Jackson said.
“As a former physician to three Presidents of the United States, I know what it takes mentally and physically to execute the duties of Commander-in-Chief and Head of State,” Jackson added. “Joe Biden has continually proven to me and to the world that something isn’t right. The American people deserve to have absolute confidence in their President’s cognitive ability.”
The Texas Republican said taking “the cognitive test will be an important first step” for Biden to reassure concerned Americans that he is fit for office or “in identifying and properly treating symptoms of impairment that are consistent with a variety of cognitive diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s, or multiple sclerosis.”
“This is not a partisan issue. When I discussed taking a cognitive test with President Trump, he was eager to assure the American people and to put the fake news media’s stories to bed,” Jackson wrote. “Why won’t President Biden do the same?
“While you underwent your annual physical exam on November 19, 2021, you either did not face a cognitive test or those results were withheld from the public,” the group of Republicans continued. They added that while the current White House physician cleared Biden physically, the GOP lawmakers wrote that they “are worried about your mental abilities.”
