House Speaker Mike Johnson called President Biden “weak” and “feeble” after his rough debate performance and lauded Donald Trump as having the strength to be president.
The duo’s first face-off during this year’s campaign struck a stark contrast between the two men, Mr. Johnson said: One is qualified and the other could be a danger to the country.
“President Trump obviously did much better,” Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said Friday. “He was right on the issues. He showed the temperament, the stamina, the mental acuity that is necessary to do this really important job at this really important time in American history.”
Mr. Biden, he noted, showed debate viewers something that Republicans have been preaching all along: The president is slipping and unfit to serve.
“President Biden showed last night that he was weak, sadly, that he is feeble,” Mr. Johnson said. “And he said a number of things that are just demonstrably untrue.”
One was when he said no American soldiers had died during his tenure as president. Mr. Johnson said Mr. Biden had “apparently forgotten” about the 13 soldiers who died during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan and proceeded to list their names.
Other House Republicans echoed Mr. Johnson’s sentiments on the president’s health. Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as the White House physician from 2013 to 2018, told The Washington Times that Mr. Biden isn’t fit to be in a leadership role.
“I hate to say I’ve told you so to everybody, but I’ve told you so,” said Mr. Jackson, Texas Republican. “I’ve been saying this for three and a half years. The man’s got cognitive issues.”
Before the debate, Mr. Jackson called on the current White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to administer a drug test to Mr. Biden over speculation that the president would be pumped full of stimulants to perform on the debate stage.
The lawmaker said it was clear that Mr. Biden wasn’t on drugs Thursday.
“I figured they would because I think they did during the State of the Union, for whatever reason,” he said. “They must have decided not to do it this time because he was normal Joe Biden, which was, you know, sleepy and confused and slurring his speech and, you know, stuff that we’re used to seeing on a day-to-day basis.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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