Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas is circulating a letter that says President Biden should take a cognitive test or drop out of the 2024 election.
Mr. Jackson, a Republican who served as White House physician under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, has repeatedly called on Mr. Biden to take the test as part of broader GOP criticism about the president’s mental fitness at age 80.
However, the latest call coincides with Mr. Biden’s decision to formally launch his reelection campaign.
“We call on you to either resign immediately and renounce your bid for reelection or submit to a clinically validated cognitive screening assessment and make those results available to the public,” Mr. Jackson said in a letter circulated among House Republicans and shared with Fox News.
The outlet said Mr. Jackson set a Wednesday deadline for other Republicans to sign the letter, which cites Mr. Biden’s age and verbal slips.
“When you first announced your bid to run in the 2020 presidential election, questions and concerns were raised surrounding your cognitive abilities,” the letter says. “Those concerns have only increased because your mental decline and forgetfulness have become more apparent since you were elected.”
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, said all politicians over age 75 should take mental competency tests, an apparent swipe at both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, who is 76 and leads the Republican primary field in early polling.
Mr. Biden and his team have dismissed attacks on his mental abilities.
“If you go back to 2020, they said that the president couldn’t do it in 2020 and attacked him there, and he beat them,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in response to Mrs. Haley’s proposal. “Maybe they’re forgetting the wins that this president has had over the last couple of years. But I’m happy to remind them anytime.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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