Doctors Urge Biden To Take Cognitive Test After Concerning Details Of His Mental Struggles Surface
Doctors have stepped up calls for Joe Biden to take a mental acuity test after a new report claimed the president was showing signs of cognitive decline.
Biden -- who, at 81, is the oldest president in U.S. history -- has refused to take cognitive tests and and declared his "memory is fine" despite polls showing that a majority of Americans are concerned about his age and fitness.
But the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has been showing worrying signs during White House meetings, including closing his eyes for long intervals, forgetting his own policy, speaking so softly that people struggle to hear him and relying on "notes to make obvious points."
Following the report, New York City-based internal medicine physician Dr. Stuart Fischer told the Daily Mail he believes Biden taking a cognitive test is "long overdue."
"No one likes to admit or recognize the passage of time, whether it is me or the President of the United States, but in certain cases you have to," Fischer explained.
Fischer suggested that speaking very softly could be a sign of cognitive decline, though he noted it's not common among patients in his nursing home.
In February, White House physician Kevin O'Connor said Biden was "healthy" and "fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency" following the president's annual physical.
The exam did not include a cognitive test, but Biden underwent a neurological exam, which included conduction studies to test nerves, nerve function and brain activity.
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But Fischer said it's "not a good sign" that there appears to be "resistance" from Biden and his doctor over the president taking a mental competency test.
"I understand the President's reluctance [to take a cognitive test]... but the physician's reluctance is harder to understand," he told the outlet. "He is a doctor, not a spin doctor, he is a medical doctor... who took an oath, like I did, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. His patient should come first."
White House officials have since dismissed the accounts in the WSJ report, which cited more than 45 insiders, as partisan politics.
In a statement to the Journal, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said, "Congressional Republicans, foreign leaders and nonpartisan national-security experts have made clear in their own words that President Biden is a savvy and effective leader who has a deep record of legislative accomplishment."
Following the release of the results of his annual physical, Biden had brushed off the concerns about his physical and mental health and assured that "everything's great."
Addressing the lack of mental acuity tests in Biden's annual physical, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president's doctor and neurologist assessed that Biden "doesn't need a cognitive test," according to the New York Post.
"He passes a cognitive test every day -- every day -- as he moves from one topic to another topic, understanding the granular level of these topics," Jean-Pierre added.
Despite the repeated denials of cognitive decline, Biden has sparked concern over the past several months after making numerous flubs during public events.
According to Fox News Digital, just last month, Biden appeared to suggest that he was vice president during the COVID-19 pandemic and that a Hamas hostage being held in Gaza was at the White House.
