Ex-White House physician Ronny Jackson has said he is 'convinced' Joe Biden is not fit for office following his latest memory ...
Ex-White House physician Ronny Jackson has said he is 'convinced' Joe Biden is not fit for office following his latest memory slips – hours after Donald Trump accused his Democratic rival of suffering from 'dementia'.
Jackson, who once claimed Trump could live to 200 years old and is now running for Congress as a Republican, said Tuesday that 'as a physician' he believes Biden does not have the 'mental capacity' or 'cognitive ability' to run the country.
'I'm pretty familiar with what it takes both physically and cognitively to do that job and what the demands of that job are,' Jackson told reporters on the call organized by the Trump campaign, according to the New York Post.
His comments come one day after Biden's latest gaffe where he appeared to forget Mitt Romney's name calling him the 'senator who was a Mormon' and said he himself was 'running for Senate'.
Trump, who has repeatedly attacked Biden's cognitive abilities and nicknamed him 'sleepy Joe', jumped onto his latest mishaps tweeting Tuesday morning that his rival has 'dementia'.
Ex-White House physician Ronny Jackson has said he is 'convinced' Joe Biden is not fit for office following his latest memory slips – hours after Donald Trump accused his Democratic rival of suffering 'dementia'. Jackson and Trump together
Biden made his latest gaffe Monday where he appeared to forget Mitt Romney's name calling him the 'senator who was a Mormon' and said he himself was 'running for Senate'
Jackson, 53, who has multiple photos of himself with Trump and his family on his congressional campaign's Facebook page, joined in the debate about Biden's mental competence on Tuesday's call.
The Republican nominee for Texas's 13th congressional district said he was 'concerned' about Biden's mental capacity to be president.
'As a citizen, not as a candidate running for Congress, but as a citizen of this country, I've watched Joe Biden on the campaign trail and I am concerned and convinced that he does not have the mental capacity, the cognitive ability, to serve as our commander-in-chief and our head of state,' he said.
Jackson said he wasn't going to 'diagnose' the Democrat of having dementia or any other condition.
'I'm not trying to remotely diagnose him with anything,' he said.
'I've not accused him of having Alzheimer's or anything of that nature.'
Jackson worked as Physician to the President under both Barack Obama and Trump, before he was nominated to serve as the Secretary of Veteran Affairs in 2018 - a nomination he later stood down from amid amid a flurry of allegations from colleagues about drunken behavior.
Prior to this he also worked in the White House medical unit under the George W. Bush administration.
Jackson admitted on the call that he never evaluated Biden as a patient or provided him care when Biden was Vice President and he worked as a physician for the Obama administration.
The Navy rear admiral went on to say Biden's mistakes are not the 'typical gaffes' he has seen of him over the years.
Trump and Jackson in the White House in 2017. Jackson served as White House Physician for Obama and Trump until 2018 but did not provide care to Biden when he was Vice President
Jackson with Eric Trump in a photo posted to his campaign Facebook page in January. Jackson once claimed Trump could live to 200 years old after carrying out his physical exam - despite tests indicating he had heart disease and was obese
'They're not the typical gaffes. He routinely gets in the middle of a thought and then loses his train of thought and then he can't recalibrate where he's at,' he said.
'He's actually having a lot of trouble recently articulating words.'
Jackson reeled off a list of traits he said he found concerning and that he said he believes have worsened recently citing Biden's repeated claim he is running for the Senate and that he gets visibly frustrated when he gets muddled.
'As a physician I can tell you that's a mechanism that folks that are having cognitive difficulties use to move on and to get out of a situation,' Jackson said.
'This is a demanding job from a cognitive standpoint, you have to be locked on, you have to be articulate, you have to process lots and lots of information and multitask.'
'And right now he's having a really extreme time just focusing on the one task at hand that he has when he stands up in front of voters and tries to explain something.'
Jackson's medical expertise was called into question back in 2018 when, after carrying out Trump's physical exam, he claimed the president was in 'excellent health' and said if he had a 'healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old.'
His positive outlook came despite test results indicating the president had a type of heart disease, worsening cholesterol and coronary calcium levels, and was obese.
Trump was hospitalized this month with coronavirus and was given Ebola drug remdesivir - that was previously only available to very ill patients - supplementary oxygen and experimental antibody cocktail Regeneron.
Biden made another slip-up Monday while speaking to United Auto Workers on the campaign trail in Toledo, Ohio where he claimed he was running 'for the Senate' (above)
Jackson's professionalism was also criticized that year when several colleagues came forward saying he was often drunk on duty, was nicknamed the 'candyman' because of the way he handed out drugs and that he once hammered on the hotel door of a female colleague's room late at night while drunk.
In one alleged incident, Jackson reportedly got so drunk at a Secret Service party that he got behind the wheel of a government car and crashed it.
Jackson denied the accusations calling them 'baseless' but the scandal led him to stand down as Trump's nominee as the Secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Former Trump Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland also took aim at Biden's competence on Tuesday's call saying he is 'not a strong man' and his leadership would pose a national security risk.
'I've known Joe Biden for a long time and he's a nice man but he's not a strong man,' she said.
'I don't see that Vice President Biden either appreciates how the world has changed over the past 10 years with China and its ambitions and its capabilities, or his willingness to stand up to them since he's so dismissive of China as a threat.'
The latest swipe from Republicans at the Democratic candidate's mental capacity comes the same day Trump said Biden has 'dementia'.
'Mitt can't be thrilled about this! Joe also said yesterday he's running for the U.S. Senate (again) and totally forgot where he was (wrong State!),' the president tweeted Tuesday in a social media rampage that saw him post more than 50 tweets and retweets in less than two hours.
'Joe has never been a nice or kind guy, so it's easier to find this obvious & rapidly getting worse 'dementia' unacceptable for USA!' he added.
The president linked to an article with footage of Biden speaking to reporters Monday about the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Donald Trump claimed Tuesday morning in a more than 50-post Twitter storm that Joe Biden has 'dementia' in his latest attack on the Democratic nominee's fitness for office
Trump, on stage in Florida on Monday night, was quick to capitalize on Biden's most recent mistakes by saying he is running for Senate and forgetting Romney's name
Biden said the mother of seven should not have to face questions over her religion from senators who claim she won't be able to separate her morals – as a devout Catholic – from her position on the Supreme Court.
'No, I don't think there should be any questions about her faith,' Biden said.
He went on to recall the time he and Obama ran against Romney in the 2012 presidential election but appeared unable to conjure Romney's name and simply referred to him as 'a Mormon'.
'I got in trouble when we were running against the senator who was a Mormon - the governor,' Biden said of Romney.
Biden also made another slip-up Monday while speaking to United Auto Workers on the campaign trail in Toledo, Ohio, where he told the crowd he was running 'for the Senate'.
'You know, we have to come together. That's why I'm running. I'm running as a proud Democrat for the Senate, when I ran as a proud Democrat for vice president, and I'm running as a proud Democrat for president,' Biden said.
'But I promise you this, I will govern as an American president.'
Trump also tweeted about this mishap saying Biden 'forgot... where he was'.
'Biden losing big in Florida. Only Fake Polls show otherwise! Bad for Healthcare. Thinks he's running for the Senate. Forgot Mitt Romney's name, and where he was!' he tweeted.
''I'm running as a proud Democrat, for the Senate'. Sleepy Joe Biden today. It's only going to get worse. It is not sustainable for our County - China will own us!!!!'
Trump repeated his criticism during his campaign rally in Florida Monday night.
'Sleepy Joe Biden, not a nice guy, by the way. He had a very bad day today,' Trump said.
'If I ever had a day like he had today, they'd say: 'It's over. It's over.
'He forgot Mitt Romney's name. He didn't know what state he was in. And he said today he's a proud Democrat running for the US Senate.'
Trump added that Biden 'has got a lot of bad days coming' and said other world leaders were 'sharp'.
'The one thing I know for sure, President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, Kim Jong Un - they are 100 per cent sharp,' he told his crowd of supporters.
'We have someone running who is not 100 per cent, he's not 80 per cent, he's not 60 per cent.'
Trump - who is 74 - has repeatedly hit out at Biden's age - 77 - and his gaffes to argue his rival is suffering dementia.
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