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FIRST ON FOX: Nearly 40 Republican lawmakers are calling on President Biden, 79, to take a cognitive test, following the example set by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
The Republican push for Biden to undergo cognitive testing comes as recent polls have shown Americans are unsure of the president’s mental fitness for office.
Former physician to the president Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, led a letter with 37 of his GOP colleagues to Biden on Tuesday expressing their “concern” with Biden’s “current cognitive state.”
“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 told Fox News Digital in an email.
BIDEN SAYS HE HAS ‘NO IDEA’ WHY MANY AMERICANS DOUBT HIS MENTAL FITNESS
Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, is seen during a group photo with freshmen members of the House Republican Conference on the House steps of the Capitol on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“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 continued. “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.”
Jackson said Biden’s taking “the cognitive test will be an important first step” in reassuring Americans that the president 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,” the former presidential doctor wrote. “Why won’t President Biden do the same?”
Republican conference chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., speaks with reporters during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“We can only assume the worst if he doesn’t submit to the same standard that his own party demanded of the last Administration,” he added. “The precedent has been set.”
In the letter, the lawmakers wrote that they “believe that, regardless of gender, age, or political party, all Presidents should follow the example set by former President Trump to document and demonstrate sound mental abilities.”
“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,” they continued, adding that while the current physician to the president cleared Biden physically, the lawmakers “are worried about your mental abilities.”
President Biden speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“The Alzheimer’s Association lists ‘changes in mood and personality,’ including being more ‘easily upset’ as one of ten signs of mental decline,” they wrote. “You displayed this type of mood change during a cabinet meeting on January 24, 2022, when you apparently did not know your microphone was on after finishing your opening remarks, and you called a White House reporter a ‘stupid son of a b—-’ in response to a question he asked on inflation.”
The lawmakers also pointed to Biden’s stumbling when trying to say how many Americans have received the COVID-19 booster shot and wrote that the slip-ups are “not just a recent trend,” saying the president’s “mental decline and forgetfulness have become more apparent over the past two years.”
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Thirty-seven lawmakers joined Jackson on the letter, including Republican leadership members House Republican Conference chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, GOP conference vice chairman Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Republican Study Committee chairman Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, as well as several members of the GOP Doctors Caucus.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Biden’s annual physical, released in November, concluded that the president is fit for duty, though it did not address whether he took a cognitive test.
