Her thoughts are her own and do not represent those of her employers. Nicole Saphier, MD, is a doctor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, an assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, and the bestselling author of “Panic Attack.”
President Joe Biden, 79, was asked a subject that was on many Americans’ thoughts during his first in-depth interview with a professional journalist in more than 200 days.
Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” said, “Some people question if you are suitable for the position, and when you hear that, I wonder what you think.”
“Observe me. Honestly, that’s all I can think of. Watch me,” said the president.
America is keeping an eye on you, Mr. President. I think it’s past time that we get some meaningful answers as a doctor and a concerned citizen.
President Biden will likely receive a cognitive evaluation during his next yearly physical at Walter Reed Medical Center in November, much like President Donald Trump. And the American people should be informed of the test findings.
Despite the fact that I am a doctor, I haven’t really seen President Biden. I am unable to make a diagnosis of the president or any other individual. But common sense dictates that we not disregard the alarming indications right in front of us.
Biden’s level of physical fitness seems to have decreased since becoming office.
The President’s doctor observed that Biden’s “ambulatory gait is perceptibly stiffer and less fluid than it was a year or two ago” at his November 2021 checkup.
This is not unexpected; in fact, it is a natural part of becoming older.
However, there are questions not just about the president’s physical health but also about his mental capacity to bear the demands of his job.
Biden often makes mistakes in public, walks awkwardly, mumbles, and exhibits confusion while attending public gatherings.
In fact, there are almost too many of these unsettling instances to list them all.
The president seemed to forget that they had just shaken hands at the end of an outdoor White House event in August when he made an effort to shake Senator Chuck Schumer’s hand.
Biden seemed disoriented as he walked off the stage after making his speech at the Global Fund Conference in September before asking the audience for directions.
Biden said during his interview with “60 Minutes” that the U.S. military would protect Taiwan in the event that the island was attacked by China, which is against official U.S. policy. The White House took that comment back a few hours later.
The president made a mistake in February 2022 when Russia seemed prepared to strike Ukraine.
In reference to a potential American reaction, he added, “It’s one thing if it’s a tiny invasion and then we wind up fighting over what to do and not do, et cetera.”
“Are you essentially approving Putin’s entry into the nation for a little incursion?” A journalist followed up.
Good question, the president chuckled. It certainly sounded like that, didn’t it? At the time, he didn’t retract what he said.
The most recent apparent slip-up happened in Washington, D.C., at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. this Wednesday.
Biden seemed to be looking for Republican Representative Jackie Walorski in the audience as the president lauded the members present.
Is Jackie present?
he declared. Who is Jackie? She can’t possibly be here.
Walorski was a well-known advocate for legislation that would have addressed Americans’ food insecurity.
Representative Walorski and two of her staff members sadly perished in an automobile accident in her district in northern Indiana in August.
At the time, President Biden acknowledged her passing in a statement. President Biden even contacted Walorski’s family immediately after the tragedy and offered his personal sympathies, Walorski’s brother disclosed on Wednesday.
Keith Walorski told the New York Post, “He made a phone call after my sister was slain and he was quite serious in recounting the mourning process… Yes, today was a major problem. Inexcusable? No. Unforgivable? No. I won’t hold it against him. I only feel bad for him.
One may understandably wonder why, after speaking to Representative Walorski’s family eight weeks before about her passing, the president seemed to believe that she was still alive and present in the meeting.
It is acceptable to inquire as to whether the president has poor short-term memory.
During the White House briefing on Wednesday, this most recent error was brought up repeatedly, but Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to acknowledge that the President had erred.
Instead, she said that since he would be visiting with her family this week, the late congresswoman was “top of his mind.”
The White House press corps took issue with her answer. It shouldn’t, either. I am not the first to doubt President Biden’s mental capacity, but there are valid reasons to do so.
Greg Ganske, a retired physician and former congressman from Iowa, expressed his worries about the president’s “mental acuity” in an article published in the Des Moines Register in August 2021.
In 1997, when Biden was a 54-year-old senator, Ganske recalled a personal encounter he had with him and noticed how much Biden had changed in that time.
He stated, “It really bothers me to witness a deterioration in President Biden, and it scares me.”
He came to the conclusion that “enough evidence exists to justifiably demand an investigation into his mental acuity.”
I am being vindicated, Ganke says in a new statement to DailyMail.com.
Political analysts and medical experts openly questioned Trump’s mental health while he was in power.
President Trump had a cognitive test as part of his yearly health examination in 2018.
To determine if a person has early dementia or cognitive impairment, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is used. The White House claims that President Trump, who was 72 at the time, scored a flawless 30 out of 30.
To demand complete openness to the physical and mental health of our political leaders is not impolite. Although talking about these issues might be difficult, the public needs openness.
As the nation deals with the effects of the pandemic, the European conflict, the opioid epidemic, a failing public school system, ongoing inflation, and a plethora of other urgent challenges, America must put its best foot forward.
Based on each person’s life expectancy and whether or not their current health is compatible with upcoming difficulties, we medical professionals evaluate future risk and determine the necessary health checks.
All of our political leaders, including President Biden, should be included in making this crucial decision. Nothing less is worthy of Americans.