Over a dozen Republican members of the House of Representatives have publicly called on Joe Biden to take a cognitive test, in order to determine whether or not he is truly mentally capable of being President of the United States, the New York Post reports.
The group of Republicans is led by Congressman Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who represents Texas’s 13th district and previously served as Physician to the President under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump. On Thursday, the letter sent to Biden by the group claims that the test is necessary “so the American people know the full mental and intellectual health of their President.”
“They deserve to know that he can perform the duties of Head of State and Commander in Chief,” the letter continues. “They deserve full transparency on the mental capabilities of their highest elected leader.”
Appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Jackson further explained his motivations for leading the charge on this demand, saying that “After this most recent embarrassing performance overseas, I thought it was time…We can’t sit on this any longer.”
The letter cites several examples of the 78-year-old Biden’s clear cognitive decline. At an event in March, Biden forgot the name of his then-newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, referring to him as “the sec…the, the, uh, former general. I keep calling him general, but my, my…the guy who run that outfit over there.” In February, Biden “misidentified the time of day and Senator John Cornyn’s title,” then proceeded to mispronounce the names of Congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas), before openly asking “what am I doing here?”
While on the campaign trail in March 2020, Biden failed to properly recite the iconic opening of the Declaration of Independence, instead saying “We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women are created by the, you know, you know, the thing.” In January of 2021, after signing a series of executive orders, Biden failed to properly put a pen back in his coat pocket, and could be heard mumbling to himself as he attempted to do so multiple times, before instead putting it in his pants pocket.
On his most recent overseas trip, Biden had a long pause during an answer to a question that lasted for 7 seconds, as he appeared to forget his own train of thought. Later, after his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden suddenly flared up at CNN reporter Kaitlin Collins for asking how the summit went, asking her “What the hell are you doing all the time?” At the end of his long-winded answer, he then said “You don’t understand what you’re talking about…you’re in the wrong business.” It has been said that a telltale symptom of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia is an increasingly short temper, which Biden has repeatedly displayed in recent years.