June 24, 2024
Pharmacist GOP Rep Carter urges Biden to take cognitive test in letter to White House: 'Fragile mental state'
By: Landon Mion
Rep. Earl "Buddy" Carter, R-Ga., wrote a letter to the White House on Monday calling on President Biden to take a cognitive assessment over concerns about his "fragile mental state" and ability to uphold his duties.
In a letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, Carter, who is also a pharmacist, wrote to White House chief of staff Jeff Zients expressing "serious concern" with Biden's cognitive state and "ability to execute the duties of the Presidency."
"After numerous examples of the President’s declining mental acuity, it is imperative that the White House remains transparent about the President of the United States' honest ability to uphold the duties of the office to which he swore an oath," Carter wrote.
This comes after a recent report from The Wall Street Journal stating that the 81-year-old president was showing signs of poor cognitive performance in private meetings with congressional lawmakers, including by closing his eyes for extended periods, speaking so softly at times that people struggled to hear him and forgetting details about his own energy policy.
In January, Biden mixed up the names of his two Hispanic cabinet secretaries – Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, according to the report. During a meeting that month with congressional leaders, the president also reportedly moved slowly around the room and started the meeting by reading from notes to make broad points about the need to provide Ukraine with additional aid despite the lawmakers in the room already supporting more funding for the country.
Biden also claimed in February that he spoke at the 2021 G-7 Summit with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017, and former French President François Mitterrand, who died in 1996.
The president has also appeared to stumble – on multiple occasions – as he attempted to board Air Force One.
"As a consultant pharmacist for several decades, I have treated patients in nursing homes and recognize the signs of cognitive decline," Carter wrote in his letter. "The patients I treated slowly experienced mental decline and forgetfulness. This includes repeatedly forgetting names and confusing prior experiences with current events – the same behaviors that the American public and congressional lawmakers have witnessed from the President of the United States..."
Carter wrote that Biden, as president, must possess a strong cognitive ability when carrying out the domestic and international duties he was elected to do, noting that Americans are concerned about his mental fitness.
"The President of the United States is a position which requires strong mental awareness to protect the interests of the American people," Carter wrote. "Throughout recent domestic and international crises, Americans are rightly concerned that the President’s fragile mental state is creating a leadership vacuum in a position that demands utmost competence..."
Read the full Fox News article here.
