Topline
Former President Donald Trump on Friday suggested he and President Joe Biden should take cognitive exams together—echoing Biden’s Democratic allies who have also called on both candidates to take cognitive tests in the wake of the June 27 debate that raised questions about Biden’s mental fitness.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during his campaign rally at the Trump National Doral Golf Club ... [+]
Key Facts
Trump, 78, offered to “go with” Biden, 81, as he takes a cognitive test, writing on Truth Social that he would “take one also . . . for the first time we’ll be a team, and do it for the good of the Country.”
Trump said that all presidential candidates should be required to take cognitive and aptitude tests.
Trump has previously called on Biden to take a cognitive test, but this is the first time he’s asked the president to do so since the June 27 debate.
Prominent Democrats, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Reps. Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi have also called on Biden and Trump to take cognitive tests since the debate, but Biden has rebuffed the calls, insisting in an interview with ABC News last week “every day I have that test,” referring to the challenges of his job.
In another post, calling Biden’s debate performance “really bad,” Trump said Biden’s “performance since that very eventful Debate evening has not exactly been stellar,” pointing to Biden introducing to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” on Thursday, before quickly correcting himself, what Trump called “an unpardonable gaffe.”
Contra
Experts caution that the results of a cognitive test, taken at face value without additional context, wouldn’t give a full picture of Biden’s mental capabilities and could be misconstrued by the public. “Releasing just numbers on a particular test won’t give the whole story on how a person is functioning,” Dr. Duke Han, professor of psychology and family medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, told Forbes previously.
Tangent
Trump, in his Friday series of Truth Social posts, also pushed the unfounded conspiracy that former President Barack Obama is secretly behind a campaign to force Biden to resign from the race. Biden “shouldn’t allow complete losers like George Clooney, under the total auspices and control of Barack Hussein Obama, to push him out of office,” Trump wrote, referring to allegations stemming from a Politico report that Obama knew about Clooney’s plans to pen an op-ed in the New York Times calling on Biden to step away from the race, but did nothing to stop him. Trump claimed that “Obama never respected Biden, thought he was dumb, and a total lightweight,” referring to long-held tensions between the two. Trump also made the baseless allegation that Obama “wants [Biden]
out” and wants Vice President Kamala Harris to replace Biden. There’s no evidence of any hatred between Biden and Obama, who has been supportive of Biden’s campaign and publicly defended him in the wake of the debate.Key Background
Trump has repeatedly bragged about having “aced” a cognitive test he asked White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson to administer in 2018. Jackson reported that Trump scored a 30/30 on the exam, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a 30-question test designed to take 10 minutes. Biden, and the White House, have said his doctor hasn’t recommended he take a cognitive exam. White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor wrote in the president’s annual medical report released in February that the president underwent an “extremely detailed neurological exam” which found no evidence of Parkinson’s, stroke or any other “cerebellar or other central neurological disorder.” Biden has said the debate was just a “bad night” and that he had a cold and was exhausted from back-to-back trips to Europe from June 5-15.
Further Reading
Here’s What A Cognitive Test Would—And Wouldn’t—Say About Biden’s Ability To Serve As President (Forbes)
Biden Interview: President Refuses Cognitive Test, Blames Poor Debate On Cold, Exhaustion (Forbes)
‘Don’t Think It Would Hurt’ If Biden Took Cognitive Test, Michigan Gov. Whitmer Says (Forbes)
