By Despite his own Department of Justice claiming he has memory problems, President Joe Biden refuses to take the same test that his predecessor did when challenged about his mental state during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After bragging about passing a dementia test in July 2020, Donald Trump famously went on television and said, “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV,” as he explained the “acuity test” he completed.
A defiant Biden will not take the test.
The New York Post writes:
“The president proves every day [in] how he operates and how he thinks — by dealing with world leaders, by making difficult decisions on behalf of the American people — whether it’s domestic or national security,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday, quoting from Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor.
“That is how Dr. O’Connor sees it, and that is how I’m going to leave it,” she said, adding that she has known the now-81-year-old Biden since 2009 and he is still “sharp.”
“When we have meetings with him and his staff, he is constantly pushing us, trying to get more information, and so that has been my experience with this president,” Jean-Pierre said.
The controversial issue took on more urgency after special counsel Robert Hur produced a report Thursday that revealed the prosecutor will not charge the president for “willfully” retaining classified material — because of a lack of evidence and because a jury would likely view the commander-in-chief as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and “diminished faculties in advancing age.”
REPORTER: "Any updates on when the president's physical might be taking place?"
KJP: "He will have a physical. When we have information on that, we'll certainly share that with you. We'll be transparent."
REPORTER: What about a cognitive exam?
KJP: "The president proves… pic.twitter.com/4GZr4inA2H
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 12, 2024
Rather than take a test to prove that he still has it, the president broke his own rule about TikTok and joined the alleged Chinese spy app in a desperate attempt to show that he’s still “with it.”
Biden’s memory concerns and the Democratic response has even brought back one of the most famous liberal television commentators back to the air. Jon Stewart sat in his old The Daily Show seat earlier in the week and made a plea to Democrats: please film these supposed lucid moments in which Joe Biden is fully in command of the facts and the situations around him.
Jon Stewart kicks off The Daily Show's election coverage with a wellness check on America's two chronologically challenged candidates: Joe Biden and Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/RPmFodvVAy
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 13, 2024
New polling has revealed that 86 percent of Americans think Biden is too old to be president again, and 76 percent have expressed concerns about his mental fitness.
A New York Times columnist has gone as far as to say that Biden should shock the world and announce at the convention that he is stepping down.
Ross Douthat writes, “Joe Biden should not be running for re-election. That much was obvious well before the special prosecutor’s comments on the president’s memory lapses inspired a burst of age-related angst. And Democrats who are furious at the prosecutor have to sense that it will become only more obvious as we move deeper into an actual campaign.
What is less obvious is how Biden should get out of it.
Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that Biden senses this, that he isn’t just entombed in egomania, but he feels trapped by his own terrible vice-presidential choice. If he drops out and anoints Kamala Harris, she’s even more likely to lose to Donald Trump. But if he drops out and doesn’t endorse his own number two, he’d be opening himself to a narrative of identitarian betrayal — aging white president knifes first woman-of-color veep — and setting his party up for months of bloodletting and betrayal, a constant churn of personal and ideological drama.
There is no easy escape from these dilemmas. But the best approach available to Biden is a distinctively old-fashioned one. He should accept the necessity of drama and bloodletting but also condense it all into the format that was originally designed for handling intraparty competition: the Democratic National Convention.
That would mean not dropping out today or tomorrow or any day when party primaries are still proceeding. Instead Biden would continue accumulating pledged delegates, continue touting the improving economic numbers, continue attacking Donald Trump — until August and the convention, when he would shock the world by announcing his withdrawal from the race, decline to issue any endorsement, and invite the convention delegates to choose his replacement.”
Biden’s press conference on Tuesday did not give people any confidence that he can continue for four more years.
Biden shuffles away without taking any questions pic.twitter.com/mTinSBv6g4
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 13, 2024
The Democratic National Convention will be hosted in Chicago beginning on August 19. Coincidentally, the last time the convention was held in the Windy City there was a fight over the nomination and leftwing activists sparked violence around the convention hall.
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